PreBoot!
by Booter-Freak
Summary: This fic is about the aftermath of the Twin City Disaster, and how Dot and company first meet Megabyte.
1. The Twin City

* * *

"And by creating a link between two systems, we can open a door, or, ah, a gateway that allows us to pass through.  But first, we have to _find_ another system."  Welman Matrix looked down appreciatively at his daughter, Dot.  His speech sounded great on paper, but not so swell coming from him.

"Now, I know I have my critics, sprites and binomes who say that there _are_ no other systems," Welman continued, "but just stop a cycle and process that statement.  Can you really believe that we are really alone?  That Mainframe is the only system in Cyberspace?  I think not."

He gestured to his invention, a large ring of metal and processing components.  "My machine will detect new systems and link to them.  It will prove that cyberspace is not an empty void, but a…uh…a wondrous place filled with inhabited systems and peoples and friends.  _We are not alone._"  Welman Matrix looked down.  "How was that?" he shrugged.

"Not bad." Dot replied.  "Drop the main light two points and a half" she requested into her earpiece.  A binome up in the rafters gave quick nod and went to work.  Dot returned to her dad, "Mmm, I think you need to spend more time on how we detect other systems."

Welman brightened and went off on a tangent.  "By casting a network of signals, or, uh, pings into the void.  These signals are programmed to lock onto energy bursts."  Welman pressed a red button on the stadium booth, and a series of light pings echoed off the walls of the Principle Office auditorium.  "Once we have a lock, we can open a gateway to the set source of energy."

Dot tilted her head and gave a sympathetic half smile, "Dad, _I_ know that, but nobody else in the audience does."

Welman Matrix's face registered mild surprise, "Oh.  Right.  I see."  He was going to have to be careful not to go off into tangents over this technology, or he would lose his audience.

"Wanna try some questions?" suggested Dot.

Welman let out a quick sigh.  "Okay, I'm ready for anything" he said, trying to sound more confident than he felt.

Dot cleared her voice and asked, "Professor Matrix, if you've _proven_ the existence of other systems, why do we physically have to visit them?"

Welman Matrix paused.  Leave it to Dot to pick out the hard questions to answer.  "Good question, good question", Welman stalled, "Um, excellent question."  He stumbled for an answer.  The technology had always clicked for Welman and he had always felt at ease discussing it, but when it came to the "_Why?"_ questions, he could never manage to find the right words.  The reasons were so obvious and clear in his head, but they were almost impossible for him to explain.  Mrs. Matrix had always been good with words.  Dot took right after her too, in more than just her looks and smarts.  It was no wonder Dot had started out so well as a young businesswoman.

            "For _proof._  That's why the gateway command has two functions: search _and_ link", Dot answered for him.  

            "That's right!  Good answer!" Welman lit up at having found words for his answer, but just as quickly let his smile drop.  "You will be here for me, won't you?  Be by my side?  Just in case?" he asked.  Enzo and Dot had always been supportive of his work, but even as a respected scientist in the Mainframe's Twin Cities, he doubted that Mainframe's population was going to answer their questions _for_ him too.

            Dot smiled back, "Of course, Dad."  This experiment had meant everything to Dad, and after all the minutes spent on theories, prototypes, and finally the building of the hardware to create such a gateway command, there was no way she could miss out on Dad's big moment.  Even the Diner, her first real committed business, was just going to have to wait.  "We'll be there".

* * *

            Enzo hummed along with his zipboard as he rode towards the construction site for the Diner.  It was so awesome finally being allowed to ride one.  For a long time he used to practice in the house, but after several broken house appliances Dad had insisted that he was old enough to ride one _outside_ when he wanted.  Riding a zipboard was _cool_.  Even if there was nothing to see in Mainframe, anyway.

Dad's experiment was going to be a big success today—he just _knew_ it.  Everybody in his family was somebody cool.  Dot had the Diner, Dad had his alphanumeric new experiment processing along.  Mom used to have a cool job too, before the accident…  He mused what he might end up doing in the future._  Probably not nearly anything as exciting as everybody else, _he sighed, _I'll probably be stuck doing nothing forever_.

Enzo landed on a clear spot in the construction zone.  The Diner was just about finished.  _Pixelacious!_ Enzo bubbled, _As soon as Dad's portal is opened, maybe I can treat whoever comes from there to an energy shake!  _He heard some arguing coming from behind.  Dot's new waiter, Cesil, was telling off a group of loiterers.  From what he had heard from Dot, the words 'customer service' were not in his vocabulary.

* * *

            Dixon drummed her fingers.  "One more virus for the deletion chamber" she noted indifferently.

            Bob gave her a sidelong look, "He can _hear_ you."

"So?" she turned to Kilobyte, who was trying to free himself from his restraints.  "Hey, Kilobyte, ready for oblivion?" she jeered with mock cheeriness.

            Kilobyte ignored her and continued grappling with his restraints.  He could feel something big gathering momentum and growing larger in the core of his body.  An upgrade.  A big one.  A big one, which, would do him little good if he was deleted before it could take its effect.

            Bob couldn't understand why Dixon had to be so cruel.  It wasn't its fault that it was programmed that way.  "Do you have to be so callous?" he asked, frowning.

            Dixon rolled her eyes in contempt, more at Bob than the virus.  "It's a _virus_, cadet.  A _dirty_,_ no-use_ virus."

            "Look, you don't know his story, what made him this way, how--"

"A User made him this way", she interrupted impatiently, tapping buttons to activate the chamber, "A User programmed him to destroy, to infect, to corrupt.  Why a User does such a thing is beyond our capacity to understand.  So, there's no point trying."  _These young cadets are all the same, but this one is even **worse**, _Dixon groaned inwardly_, The whole 'save the net' attitude…what a joke.  Mercy?  For a virus?  Never._

Bob looked back at Kilobyte who was becoming more frustrated towards his braced restraints.  Why would the User, the User who had brought them so much good, unleash creature so terrible?  It was so…pointless.  "I don't believe a User would knowingly release a virus on the net".  Kilobyte glanced at Bob.  _Odd one,_ he thought, and returned to his thoughts to escape.

            "Wow, I forgot who I was talking to.  I suppose you've written a read me file on the psyche of Users."

            "Well, actually, I—"

            Dixie smiled sympathetically, "You're never going to pass the finals, kid."

            "What?"

            "Guardians are here to mend and defend, okay?  Not sit around, trying to work out how the User thinks and why viruses are introduced into systems," she answered imperiously.  "Sheesh, I'm just glad the prime guardian hasn't seen any of _your_ works…" Dixon hid her smile.  It was nice seeing views that weren't degraded from knowing how things _really_ were.  Bob was such a dork, such a _loser_, but his whole upbeat attitude was hard not to like.  It was going to be a shame to see him get hardened up by the real net.

            Kilobyte pushed hard against his restraints.  His upgrade was nanoseconds from happening, he could already feel the changes taking place.  But deletion was but a few button presses away…and his upgrade would be too little too late.  The guardians were still bickering in the background.  If their argument could stall the female guardian just a little longer, he would be free.

            Bob raised his eyebrows at this statement.  "I had a meeting with Turbo just last second.  He thought my ideas were radical", he said, and thought he heard a soft pinging noise in the backround.  Dixon was bound to be impressed by _that._

            Eyes rolled up into his sockets, Kilobyte felt the upgrade was here.  First, he would receive his new internal powers, and then a new body, complete with external shielding and strength.  He was going to be bigger, faster, smarter, stronger, and far more lethal that before.  Wonderful.

            "_Radical?"_ Dixon scoffed.  _Try 'random', _she thought to herself.  "He used the word radical and you think—"

            A roar came from Kilobyte, undergoing the first stage of his upgrade.  This new power was immense.  The restraints shattered with _ease._  Kilobyte couldn't restrain a grin over his newfound strength.  He snapped his attention towards the two guardians.  He knew which one he wanted to delete _first_.

            "What the—?"  Dixon face was frozen with shock.  _Oh FAQ, _she thought,_ A viral upgrade!  _"Glitch, patch me through to central," she commanded, "We have a 403 in progress!"

            Bob turned to her. "A 403? Viral upgrade?"  _I can't let this happen, _he thought_, I've got to stop him long enough for Dixon to open the viral breakdown chamber!  _He raced towards Kilobyte, wrist guards braced in front of him.

            "Bob!  No!"

            The virus snorted at this pathetic attempt.  He swatted Bob away and sent him crashing into the opposite wall of the room.  Bob felt his head swimming and thought he heard that funny pinging sound again.  Then blackness.

            Kilobyte grinned maliciously at the remaining guardian.  He would absorb the unconscious guardian's energy as soon as he was finished with this one.  Large quantities of energy were needed for him to complete his full upgrade.  Otherwise, he would be unable to finish his upgrade into a new body.  And _this_ guardian was first on his list. 

            Dixon stumbled backwards, desperately trying to put space between her self and the newly upgraded virus while her keytool was busy relaying the message.  "Upgrade skipping a generation: has the ability to fly, transfinite power reserves, infection capabilities—".  Kilobyte lunged for her.  She ran up along a wall, missing a handful of claws narrowly.  Pushing off the wall for leverage, she flipped, and landed on Kilobyte's back.  Securing her arm around his neck, Dixie aimed her keytool at the back of his head.  _See how you like this, _she shouted silently, and then commanded to her keytool, "Glitch, _narrow beam!"_  

A neon beam of light shot out and went straight through the virus's skull, and out directly between his eyes.  Nothing happened.  The virus was still processing.  Dixie realized too late this virus was energy absorbing as well.  Kilobyte grinned, grabbed her, and threw her to the ground.  He unsheathed his claws, and held them for moment above her, savoring her expression and the irony of the moment, now that _she_ was the one about to be deleted, completely at _his_ mercy.  Dixie's eyes widened at her approaching deletion, and she squeezed then shut tightly as Kilobyte struck, held her helpless in his claws, and tossed her aside, depleted of energy, onto the ground.

Sated with energy and revenge, Kilobyte turned to Bob.  The guardian was still unconscious, and without a keytool, stealing his energy for his full upgrade would be easy.  His intent was distracted by pinging sounds, which appeared to be growing louder.  He was startled to find himself suddenly trapped in some sort of a portal.  The massive amount of energy from the gateway was all Kilobyte needed to finish his upgrade, and his new physical viral form had taken place.

_"I AM GIGBYTE!" _he roared, and the portal vanished leaving the two unconscious guardians behind.

* * *

            Welman tapped his fingers anxiously.  The crowd was growing impatient, and Dot and Enzo were nowhere to be found.  He could understand Phong not being able to make it, what with him and the command.com so busy all the time, but what was taking Dot and Enzo?  A binome mother tried to hush a fussy baby near the back of the auditorium.  _Oh well, I'll just have to start without them, _he sighed_, I'm sure they be here any nano, and the crowds getting restless.  Here goes nothing._  Shuffling his cue cards, Professor Matrix began.

* * *

            _Well, the speech could have been a little better, but everyone seems genuinely impressed,_ Welman smiled.  The speech went okay, but Welman knew the real excitement would begin as soon as they locked onto a new system and he finally _show_ everybody it was _true_, that there was life outside Mainframe.  They could learn so much about each other, just imagine all the new technologies and cultures…but, where was Enzo and Dot?  Didn't they want to be here to shake the newcomers hand?  _Heh, they're probably stuck in traffic, what with _everybody_ just _rushing _to see my new break though,_ he thought.  He looked at his scanners.  The pings should be detecting a system any second now.

            The pings echoed though cyberspace.  A large burst of energy, the Super Computer, resonated the strongest of all the systems, being the largest system in cyberspace.  They had a lock.

            Looking down at the scanner, Welman found the pings had located a system.  Professor Matrix could barely contain his excitement over the good news.  "System detected," he called, and the audience hummed with whispers of anticipation.  Welman's glee was only stifled by the absence of his children.  Maybe he could call them after the gateway was opened.  "Executing gateway command," he stated to the crowd, fingers racing across the controls.  Then, a flash of light.

* * *

            Gigabyte felt himself being pulled into the portal, then through it.  Now that he had acquired enough energy from the portal to set off his final phase of upgrade, and enough energy to leave him completely charged, he needed to get out of this thing.  He felt the portal stop, having linked to its destination, and he saw a room full of sprites and binomes crowded around him.  His function as a virus was a very simply one: destruction.  The total, utter destruction of everything.  The sight of sprites and binomes around him sent him into a fit of blinding rage.

_"I HAVE BECOME GIGABYTE, DESTROYER OF SYSTEMS!" _he bellowed, but soon found himself confined by the gateway.

            Welman saw the creature emerge inside the gateway, and had heard his proclamation.  _This isn't supposed to be happening, _he thought_, This creature isn't friendly!  What went wrong? _ His attempt to compile what had happened was interrupted by the short circuiting of his controls.  He disconnected the hardware from the gateway the instant before it could be short circuited too.  The portal had lost an enormous amount of energy from within, due to the energy Kilobyte absorbed to complete his upgrade and become Gigabyte.  This dip caused a flux to occur in the gateway.  The flux had proved to be too great for the gateway itself to sustain, and had caused everything else inside the gateway to tip, become completely unstable, and break apart.  Welman watched in horror as everything inside the gateway's hardware started to split apart—including the virus!  

Binomes and sprites racing for the doors never made it.  The separation of the gateway's contents was similar to that of splitting an atom.  Welman only had time to wonder _How? _before the explosion nullified the Priciple office, and receiving a booster from the second of the Twin Cities cores, nullified the rest of the city.

* * *

      The construction crew for Dot's Diner was adding the finishing touches to the new restaurant.  In a cycle or so, the restaurant would be ready for it's grand opening.  Many citizens were eager for the Diner to open, as Al's restaurant often left them in long lines when they came in, and indigestion when they came out.

Enzo fidgeted.  How long was Dot going to take on this?  He noticed the 'puppy' that had been following around for the past few cycles had managed to meander to the Diner.  He should probably tell Dot and Dad about him.  Maybe they would let him keep him.  _I'll tell them after Dad's done showing off his new invention, _Enzo decided_, IF we ever GET to Dad's show.  _His impatience got the better of him once again, and he said to Dot, "Sis, hurry up!  We're gunna be late!"

            Dot looked away from her new organizer to Enzo.  "Enzo, I'll be finished a lot quicker without you pestering me."

            "But Dad's experiment!"

            "We have _plenty_ of time," she noted and checked her organizer, "it's only…" Dot read the time.  She had lost track of time!  They were microseconds behind schedule!  "Oh no!" she turned to the lead construction binome.  "Jimmie!  Take over!  We're late!  I'll be back ASAP." Dot shouted.  Jimmie smiled and gave a thumbs up.  Nothing got Dot bristled more than a late schedule on her part.

            Enzo was about to say, "I told you so!" when he felt the ground under his feet shake.  Both Enzo and Dot exchanged glances.  Other binomes were looking around with confusion too.  A flash of light suddenly illuminated the other city for a moment, then a massive explosion.  Dot lowered her shaded glasses and stared into glowering red swell of the explosion.  The ball of the expanding explosion seemed to grow impossibly large, like a smoldering giant balloon.  For an instant no one believed what they were seeing.  _All those people, _she thought, numb_.  No, DAD!  _Suddenly, everyone was blasted backwards by the shockwave.  The Diner's window's shattered, and construction equipment sent flying.  Dot found herself lying in a pile of broken glass next to Enzo, both of them cut and bruised, when it was all finished.

* * *

            Megabyte and Hexadecimal stood shoulder to shoulder, both facing opposite directions, in the middle of what remained of the Twin City.  The first thing Megabyte became aware of was, well, his own _awareness_.  He felt himself on a separate state of consciousness, no longer Kilobyte or Gigabyte, or _half_ of Gigabyte.  He had become an entirely new, separate virus.  Looking to the side of him, he saw his 'twin', Hexadecimal, her mouth in an "O" of surprise.  Megabyte knew her name, and Hexadecimal's function the instant he saw her.  After all, she was part of something they both once were, and now she had become the reflection of everything he was not.  Hexadecimal surveyed the area and put on a happy face, "I…_like it here!"_

Megabyte scanned the wreckage.  Nothing but smoking heaps of rubble.  Was this all that was left of the system?  _This?_  If so, then what?  Watching things burn may have suited Hex, but it wasn't enough for him.  How would he get out of here?  He stalked off, hoping to find something, _anything_, that would aid him.  Hexadecimal cackled hysterically at something off in the distance.  Megabyte grimaced.  His code would run cold before he sought company in her.  Sirens screamed somewhere ahead of him.  His attention snapped towards the new sound.  There was other life around!  Not all had been destroyed!  He thought of the irony of his relief over other life.  In his former existence as Gigabyte, destruction was all he craved.  Now, destruction seemed pointless, and a need to consume and control all around him rose up.

            Careful to keep himself concealed within the shadows, Megabyte headed towards the sound.  He slid around the corner of a building and saw…another system!  How could there be two systems next to each other?  _No, _he realized_, two cities, one system.  _Things were starting to look up.  The system wasn't terribly large, but it was more than enough to get him started.  A medical van rolled up nearby.  Several CPU policemen and a few doctors hopped out.  Megabyte smiled to himself.  What was left of this city _was_ unstable, and he was sure the citizens of Mainframe would hardly gain suspicion of his existence is a few of their best disappeared in the line of duty.  Things were looking up indeed.

* * *

            Bob woke up to a throbbing in his head and shoulder.  Dazed, he got up and looked around, trying to assess what had happened.  Kilobyte!  Dixon!  He searched the room for both.  Kilobyte wasn't here, but he left the viral breakdown room in a wreck.  And sprawled on the ground, flickering in and out of existence, was Dixon.  Bob raced to her side and lifted her head up.  She had lost way too much energy.  "Dixon, hang on!" he cried.

            "It's too late for me, Cadet." She replied weakly.  Dixon could feel herself slipping away.  Glitch asked her if she wanted to download her energy into itself.  She said yes.  _Goodbye Glitch.  Bye Bob.  Save the net for me, `k?  _Her keytool started beeping.  Bob noticed Glitch was transferring the rest of her energy to itself. 

            "Glitch, stop!" Bob cried, but the keytool paid no heed.  Dixon winced and faded out of existence.  Bob yelled in aguish over his lost partner.  She didn't deserve to be deleted like this.  What was he going to do now?  His grief was cut short by Glitch's levitation off the ground.  The keytool scanned for a guardian and turned promptly to Bob.  He was the obvious choice.  Glitch had heard Bob's belief in the good of all people, even viruses, and knew Bob would always use itself for the benefit and defense of others.  To mend and defend, the guardian code.

            The keytool floated towards Bob, and attached itself to his wrist guard.  _I don't deserve you, _Bob thought to Glitch_, I was no help to Dixon when she needed me, what good am I now?_  Glitch remained firm in its belief in Bob, and linked itself to him.  Bob hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do, then said, "Glitch, system scan.  Track and lock on Kilobyte."

* * *

            Dot heard the car squeal as she slammed on the breaks.  There were med crews racing everywhere, but of little avail.  So far, there had been no survivors yet, and word had been that some of the rescue teams had gone missing.  Many were fearing that they had been nullified too, trying to save the lives of others.  Both of them had driven all over what was left of the Twin City, desperately looking for there father, but had come up with nothing except fears for the worst.  Worst of all, most of the remaining population in Mainframe had come to the conclusion that Professor Matrix's experiment had somehow went wrong and caused the destruction of the Twin City.

            Enzo looked up miserably at Dot, "Where's Dad?" he asked, not expecting any real answer, but hoping for comfort.

            "I…I don't know," she answered, trying not to let her fears eat away at her.  But the truth was becoming evidently clear, no matter how much she tried to deny it.  Welman Matrix, her father, was gone.  Dot tried to keep herself together.  She couldn't lose it now, not now, she needed to be strong, for Enzo.

            Bob emerged from the portal leading to the system Glitch had pointed out as the last place Kilobyte had been, and found himself surrounded by the bewildered stares of the locals.  He noticed several tears around the area and proceeded to mend them.  Having seen the devastation, he wondered what happened here.  Kilobyte?  No, this had to be something much bigger, to cause so much damage.  

            Dot wasn't sure if she believed her eyes.  Who was this stranger?  Could he know what might have happened?  She walked up to him.  "Who are you?" she asked.

            Bob paused at the question momentarily.  The sprite in front of him looked very pretty, but very sad.  What would he say?  "I'm so sorry.  I'm a cad—er, guardian.  I come from the net."

            Dot struggled against a sob.  The net?  The net was the whole reason this mess was started.  The reason her Dad was almost certainly dead.  "The net?" she cried, "You did this?"

            "No! I—"

            "Your fault!" she cried, and broke into sobs against his chest.  Dot didn't even know who he was, but she needed someone, anyone, to vent herself at.  She should have been there with Dad, like she promised she would.  She should have been nullified with everyone else.  If she hadn't been late…

* * *

            Turbo arrived right after, two guardians by his side to aid him.  He looked at Bob, and the young green sprite crying into his shoulder.  "You okay?" Turbo asked.

            Bob looked down at the sprite he had just met, and noticed a young green boy sitting on the ground by their feet, looking just as miserable as the older girl he was holding.  They must be brother and sister.  He smiled and said, "We're going to be."  Dot and Enzo both looked up at Bob, then at each other.  Dot smiled weakly at the stranger's words, then sat down next to Enzo and gave him a hug.  Turbo smiled at Bob's classic show of affection and pulled him aside.

            "We heard about what happened to Dixon.  I'm sorry Bob." Turbo said, his eyes downcast.  Dixon had been one of their best, true to her code until the end.  "We'll find and destroy the virus, if he hasn't been already," he added quietly to Bob.  Turbo sighed and looked up.  "We're also going to talk with the command.com of this system and get things cleared up.  Hopefully, this system will someday return to normal," he said, sparing a glance at Enzo and Dot.  Bob looked over his shoulder at them.

            "Yeah," he said.

* * *

            Phong stared down at the system reports, but his eyes refused to read.  He had had enough bad news for one day.  He placed the reports down and closed out the vidwindow.  Half of the system had been demolished.  Now all that remain was a fraction of that city, which had gained the nick name 'Lost Angles'.

Three fifths of the sprite population and one third of the binome population had been nullified.  Worst of all, the reason for such destruction had been a stroke of 'bad luck'.  The guardians had held a meeting at the Principle Office and had informed him that they had come to the conclusion that Welman Matrix's experiment had accidentally stumbled across a loose virus in the Super Computer and had brought him here.  What had happened after that no one was sure, except that something went wrong that had lead to the explosion of the core and, consequently, the nullification of the rest of the city.

The guardians had scanned for any traces of Kilobyte's code, and any traces of his upgraded form's code.  No matches for Kilobyte or his upgraded form were detected.  They also left Phong with several up-to-date read-me files on viruses, other systems, gateways and portals, and some other information they thought would be useful to this system.  Phong was about to leave the room and possibly plan out what to do next, after a quiet moment of thinking, when a vidwindow popped up with a message.

Phong double clicked on it to open the file, and strained himself to read.  Welman!  A message from Welman.  What could it be?  Phong's eye's scanned the writing.

_Phong, _

_Sorry you couldn't make it to the show.  Give the command.com my thanks for lending me the Twin City's principle office.  I really think this thing's going to be a bang, despite what others say, and I downloaded you a copy of the portal.  I hope everybody will be available to this technology someday.  Thanks, old friend._

_Sincerely,_

_Welman_

Phong looked at the date.  Just a microsecond before the accident took place, when Welman started his speech.  The old sprite pushed his glasses up his nose.  He owed it to Welman.  Clicking on a contact link, Phong saw one of the tech boys jump from a pile of papers, startled.

"Yessir?"

"I'm downloading you a copy of Welman's portal hardware.  I want you to rebuild it."  Phong asked.

The techie gagged, "You want us to make another one of those things?!  After the damage it caused?"

"Only the hardware.  And…the portal did not destroy the system.  Just its misfortune of connecting to the wrong place at the wrong time."

"B-but, we can't even begin to make that!  I feel it is _wrong_ to build something of such destruction!  Is the command.com demanding this?" the binome asked.

Phong blinked.  "Oh…um, yes, my son.  However, the command.com askes that only that the hard drive be built.  You need not build the portal, if you fear that."

"No…it's just that, what if it falls into the wrong hands?  What if we build another portal?  It's only a copy!  Completely unstable.  Look what happened last time, the guardians—"

"I believe guardians stated it was a accident.  Are you willing to waste a man's life—a man's death—because of the accident?  To let everything be in vain?  I understand your wariness.  It is justifiable, my son.  But even though the Twin City's destruction resulted in the meeting of a violent being, a virus, we did find friends who are able to help.  Please, process a copy, and place it under high level security in the archives."  Phong stared back at the uncertain binome.  He seemed reluctant and not entirely convinced, but he nodded his head yes and closed out.

"I'm sorry Welman," Phong lamented, "That things did not turn out as you dreamed."  Phong clicked on Welman's message and placed it in the 'save' file.  He doubted he would open it again.

((_Thus, the portal hardware stolen in 'When Games Collide'))_


	2. Viral Arrival

* * *

            Dot sighed and looked at herself in the mirror.  Everything about her looked tired, slumped, and defeated.  Losing Dad had been the worst thing that had ever happened to her, even worse than Mom's accident.  At least then she had _had_ people to comfort her, to be there for her.  But her dad was a null somewhere, and so were many of her friends.  Plus hundreds of others she never knew.  Those that were still here were too busy dealing with their own losses to help.  Worst of all, she had felt the sadness of all of this death and pain having come from Dad's experiment, what he had hoped to be the highlight of his life.  What was planned to be a shining future turned out to be just the opposite.  

The guardians, who had done tremendous work mending tears and stabilizing the system, had remained so distant and impersonal.  Didn't they care?  So far, the only guardian who had attempted to comfort her had been Bob, the guardian she had first blamed for the whole incident.  Having to listen to the guardians explain what had happened the best they could had been hard on her.  She could feel the whispers about her father peeling away at her.  Dot looked down and remembered the sad smile Bob gave her before having left for the Super Computer again.  At least he had tried to make things better.

Enzo had shown a total lack of enthusiasm for anything lately, but she had been too busy drowning in grief and self pity to take enough notice.  Dot struggled against tears.  Struggle, struggle, struggle.  That's all she seemed to be doing nowadays.  Her grief seemed to have no end.  First Mom, then Dad.  _It wasn't fair_.  She should be deleted now.  If only she wasn't late.  Then all her troubles would be over.  Why did Dad die when she didn't?  What made her so worthy of life?  Why was it so much harder o be the one to _survive_?  Looking at herself in the mirror, she realized she needed someone who could offer her advice to help her through this time, someone to _tell_ her _what to do_.  The experiment had been over a second ago.  Dot turned away from the mirror, and went to see Phong.

* * *

            Dot's heels clicked quietly as she walked through the open hallways of the Principle Office.  She had called Phong ahead of time and asked if they could talk, and Phong had graciously offered her to meet him in the Read-Only room.  Turning the corner, she found the door leading to the room, and double-clicked on the doorknob to enter.  Phong stood waiting, the large read-only vidwindow laid out in front of him.  Phong smiled, but said nothing, waiting for her to speak first.

            "Phong, I need to talk," she paused, "The experiment…everything's gone so wrong.  What do I do?  I…" Dot tried to finish her sentence.  She had been the one who wanted to talk, but now she couldn't even find the words she needed.

            Phong looked up at her levelly.  "My child, like polishing a gem without friction, a person cannot become stronger without trials.  I cannot tell you what it is you are to do.  That decision is yours alone.  But let me show you some footage recorded recently."  He tapped on a button on the read-only window, and a scene of two binomes picking through the rubble popped up.  "What do you see, my child?" Phong asked.

            Dot looked down, almost dully at the scene, and said, "I see the wreckage caused my Dad's experiment."  She was surprised by the tone of bitterness she heard in her statement.

            "And…?"

            "And what?"

            Phong pointed to one of the binomes. 

            "They're cleaning up the rubble, trying to fix up things," she noted.

            "Exactly.  They remorse for their loss, but _move on _to make things better.  They build for a brighter future, despite a dark present," he answered, touching his six fingertips together.

            "Is this what you think I should do?" Dot asked.  When the old sprite didn't reply, just looked at her with his gray eyes, she returned her gaze to the vidwindow.  Dot looked hard at the window, as if trying to search for a hidden answer to a trick question.  Her eyes blurred out after a nano, and she saw her reflection in the vidwindow.  A reflection still tired, slumped, and defeated.  The binomes were moving on, so why wasn't she?  She realized that things were changing now, for the better, and she should as well.

            Phong saw the realization in Dot's face, and finally answered, "Dot, I do not think words are what you need now.  I think what you need…is action."  Phong stroked his beard and said lightly, "Actions speak louder than words, you know," and smiled at his clever saying.

            "Thank you, Phong," she said gratefully.

* * *

            Megabyte looked at his newly rallied troops.  Such modest beginnings.  A little over a hundred binomes had been infected.  Still, it was something, wasn't it?  He supposed he could have infected more, but he had to lie especially low when the guardians showed up.  It was surprising though, how ineffective they were.  The guardians were smart enough to check for both forms of code from his previous life, but they hadn't even suspected to check for any alternate forms for the same strain of virus.  It was rather amusing really; they were looking for one virus, when there were two entirely new ones all along!

            Most of his infected minions were busy on the quiet construction of his new compound.  Nothing suitable for him yet, but they were working on it.  A binome was working on sealing up a containment unit, until he found his hand sealed to it.  Trying to shake the containment unit off, he managed to know knock over several boxes and make a scene of himself.  Megabyte realized that he probably should have 'hired' someone competent in the building industry, instead of mostly CPUs and med doctors.

            Turning his attention away from the crowd of binomes hovering over the one with a containment unit stuck to his hand, Megabyte started to wonder about Hexadecimal.  She was going to be a problem.  He needed to find a way to silence her.  However she had managed not draw attention to herself so far had been beyond him, but Megabyte knew this wouldn't last for very long.  Stealth was crucial at this time, and if Hex started blowing up half of the city, the whole system would be on alert.  Then it would only be a matter of time before they found out about him as well.  And with such a small army, he would have absolutely no hope of fending off the systems defenses.

            He was thinking about sending her a time delete bomb disguised as a mask when he felt himself step on something soft and squealy.  Looking down, he saw it was green null.  _Disgusting annoyances, they should be ex--, _Megabyte cursed, then stopped.  The null was a striking green and white.  Megabyte remembered little of his former existence as Gigabyte, but he recalled strongly a green sprite in a white lab coat operating the gateway hardware.  Professor Welman Matrix, the one responsible for his creation, and the destruction of the Twin City.  No mistaking it, this was the same sprite.  How did _he_ get all they way over here?

            Grinning, Megabyte bent over to pick the null up.  The null tried to squirm away, but the virus snatched him up easily.  Inspecting it closer, Megabyte became _sure_ this was the sprite.  Megabyte's grin deepened at the irony of the situation.  "I suppose I owe you a thank you, now don't I?  It would be most rude of me to leave you to slither on the streets, after I've become so indebted to you, so…why don't you stay for a while?" Megabyte laughed.

* * * 

            Dot opened the door to her family's apartment and went in.  She had been looking for Enzo, but so far hadn't found him.  When she had asked Cecil at her Diner, still receiving repairs, Cecil had went into a fit over whether he looked like a nanny.  Enzo wasn't at school either.  Dot looked in Enzo's room and found him stroking a puppy by his bed, sniffling.  His eyes were red.  He must have been crying for a while.

            "Enzo," she asked, coming in, "are you okay?"

            Enzo covered the puppy in a flurry with his blanket and explained quickly, "Oh, Dot!  I didn't see you coming.  Um, I guess you saw the puppy, huh?  He's really strong, and he started following me around after we bumped into each other at Old Man Pearson's place. Oh!  Uh, I know I'm not supposed to go there but—_Dot_?!  What happened to you?!"  Enzo gaped at Dot, having finally looked up at her for the first time.  All her old clothes were gone.  Instead of purple dresses, lace up boots, the purple star makeup on her cheek, and her wild haircut, she had a shorter, more rounded haircut, short burgundy boots with heels, and a simple, pretty peach jumpsuit.

            "Like it?" she asked meekly.

            "Yeah, but…how come you changed your outfit?"

            Dot walked over and sat down on Enzo's bed.  She pulled the covers off the dog and gave him a pet.  The dog gave a short whimper.  "You been crying?" she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.  Enzo nodded to Dot.  "Enzo, things will get better, because…they're changing for the better.  So am I." Dot felt like she was lying through her teeth.  "And I think we should both try to make things better too.  Together." She said, feeling her own pain present with her. 

Enzo felt a sob clutch his throat.  He remembered how miserable he had felt when Mom died.  Just like now.  But that was different.  Dad and all his friends had been there.  Now the tears seemed to be endless.  How could they still move on?  Dad and Mom were _gone.  _How could you _forget_ them?  

Dot saw the anguish in his face.  She squeezed his shoulders, trying to comfort him, and herself.  "Mom and Dad may both be gone, but we still have each other, and that's what matters, right?" she asked.

            Enzo looked up at Dot.  Dad had said that exact same thing after Mom died from the accident when working to repair a nullified sector.  _Mom may be gone, but we still have each other, and that's what matters, right? _Enzo recalled.  They all knew the risks involved in her job, but none of them had ever expected she would die.  But even her death didn't stop Dad.  Instead, they all relied on each other for support, and things _did_ get better.  After a while, it stopped hurting, and things went back to the way they should.  Overcoming losses with the ones you love had been a value both Mom and Dad had, and even though they were gone, he still had Dot, and that was all he would need.  Enzo remembered the guardian too.  Bob, right?  Having someone with a cool a job as him would have been alphanumeric to have around, if things hadn't been so sad.  Bob had said things would be better too.

            The dog next to him barked in encouragement.  Dot and Bob were right.  He cleared his eyes, and smiled at Dot.  "Yeah.  That's what matters."

            Dot gave him a big hug.  Poor Enzo had been through a lot already, and now she was going to see that both of them were going to live happily again.  Right now, Enzo was the most important thing in the net to her.  All they had were each other.

            The young dog let out another bark, not wanting to be let out on this touching moment.  "What about you, boy, you wanna be in on this?" Enzo asked.  Another bark followed from the dog.  

            Dot let out a quick sigh.  Things were looking better already.  "So," Dot asked, "what are you going to call him?"

* * *

            Hexadecimal squealed with delight.  Now, who said she couldn't make friends?  She had one right here.

            "Well, hello Scuzzy," she greeted her new creation.  Playing with nulls had been fun for the past few seconds, and Hexadecimal had developed quite a connection with them.  They were very easy to control, what with being mindless worms and all.  But that had bored her now.  Watching the guardians from the shadows had also been fun, but they didn't stay very long.  She recalled the blue one.  Hexadecimal had immediately recognized him from her days as Gigabyte, or Kilobyte, actually.  One of the few details she had bothered to fish from her memory.  He had such a soft touch.  Such a scene, what with him trying to comfort the locals; Hex didn't know if she should be touched…or disgusted.  

* * *

            Megabyte drummed his finger on his new console.  It was rather nice, and fit perfectly.  Sitting with legs often left one stiff after a while, but without them, it was quite comfortable.  His minions had been rather disturbed by his request at finding a way to detach his legs.  But, they had managed, and now he floated intently at his console chair, while his legs were off to be polished.  As he watched Mainframe's news on the vidwindow, not really paying any attention, he wondered if his legs would end up being shinier than the rest of his body.  Didn't want that…

            Nibbles, his recently acquired pet, and formerly Welman Matrix, interrupted his meander of thought.  Megabyte liked his pet's name.  One of the few 'cute' things that wasn't annoying.  His pet null was staring at one of the vidwindows raptly, and Megabyte's gaze turned to what Nibble's was watching.

            "Oh, oh, oh!  And here's a spot of other good news as of lately," Mike the TV chirped from the vidwindow, "The opening of Dot's Diner, after many reconstructions and hardships of it's owner Dot Matrix (a close, personal friend of mine), is finally opening next cycle!  Many citizens are eager for the opening, as Dot's Diner is being boasted as having the fastest food in Mainframe!  Wow!"  Mike continued to go on about the diner, but Megabyte paid little attention.  Dot _Matrix_?  Some footage was shown with a picture of Dot and Enzo while Mike carried on about how this magical opening was brought to you by Zippo Transports.  Nibble's 'head' leaned closer to vidwindow, as if not daring to miss out on one bit of this scene.

            Megabyte looked in interest at the two sprites on the screen.  The resemblance to their former father was uncanny.  They were, unmistakably, the spawn of Professor Welman Matrix.  Interesting.  It seemed the null had not lost all attachments to its previous life.  Mike went onto other news, and Nibbles promptly lost interest, and slithered away.  The virus watched Nibbles momentarily, but his attention was turned back to the vidwindow as Mike announced more breaking news.

            "And this just in folks, but it appears we're going to be having a system upgrade!  Hang onto your motherboards, we have an exclusive interview with the Principle Office Secretary, Phong!"

            Phong.  Megabyte had hardly been here a while and already he disliked the old sprite.  The bearded old fool had proved to be more troublesome than he had thought.  Megabyte had to be extra careful and speedy with his actions in order to prevent detection under Phong's relentlessly scrupulous watch.  Most binomes and data sprites he infected often had associates who would voice their concern to others as soon as that binome or sprite went missing under Megabyte's control.  If found missing, that could lead to a search that would end with him.  Often Megabyte had to silence those concerned ones through infection too.  Then he had to infect the associates of _those _associates.  In others words, he had to infect faster than word of mouth.  A difficult task, but not impossible.  And it had led him to a nice, well-rounded army.  Sort of.

            "I am happy to announce, on behalf of the Principle Office staff, that we have detected an upgrade being initiated soon.  We are expecting the upgrade to be downloaded from the User into our system in one second," Phong announced from the vidwindow, "The command.com asks that all citizens be aware of the systematic power down and make any necessary arrangements to avoid any inconveniences.  We will be briefing you on the contents of the upgrade as soon as all upgrade operations have been completed."

            "Thank you, Phong!  And remember folks, you heard news of the upgrade here _first_!  We'll be playing _continuous reminders_ for anyone who _missed out_ the first time on this exciting news.  And now, a word form our sponsor…"

            Megabyte thought for a moment.  A system-wide power down?  Naturally, the Principle Office's defenses would be at their highest, so it would be impossible for him to try to take control of _that_.  Especially since all of his equipment would be powered down along with the rest of Mainframe.  However, that still leaves the citizens of Mainframe.  All CPU's would certainly be present at the Principle Office, minus a few CPU scouts patrolling streets for safety precautions.  Plus, all communications and travel vehicles will be unable to function unless otherwise operated from the Principle Office.  That left the citizens almost completely unguarded and unaware of anything until the system becomes powered up again.  Excellent.

            Even with his equipment stalled for the moment, Megabyte realized he could infect a large portion of the population himself while the rest of the city lie unsuspecting.  The perfect way to infect undetected.  It would be quite strenuous to infect so many manually, without the aid of his recently built PID machines to convert his new 'recruits' for him, but as the army of his grows, the effort would be become less.  Once he became satisfied temporarily with his new mass of loyal followers, he would finally be large enough to fend off any attacks against the Principle Office, and finally 'set up shop'.

            Megabyte smiled inwardly.  Things couldn't have possibly played out any better.

* * * 

            Cecil looked for the tip at the table he had just waited at. 

            Nothing.

            And people wondered why he detested customer service.  Seemed the only person who said 'please' or 'thank you' or didn't greet him with a "Hey _Ceecil!"_ was Madam Dot.  He saw her hand wave over the top of a wall of vidwindows, immersed in business applications.  Tracking along his ceiling railway, Cecil trailed to greet her.

            "Madam?"

            "Cecil, would you please take this and input it into the Diner's profit files?"

            "Of course."

            "Thank you."

            Cecil turned around to start his errand when he bumped into Enzo.  Or rather, Enzo bumped into him.

            "Hey _Ceecil!_" Enzo smiled.

            Cecil barked out a "Hmph!" and stalked off to finish his function.  Enzo hopped into his seat and looked at Dot.  Only, her face was hidden in screen after screen of vidwindows.  He swerved left and right, but she seemed to be surrounded.  Enzo plucked a vidwindow out in front of him, and finally saw Dot.

            "H-hey!  I'm not finished with those data transactions.  I _need_ those for the Willison account!" Dot said, startled.  Enzo shrugged and handed it back.

"Sis, don't ya think ya have enough stuff to do?" Enzo asked.

            Dot sent him a funny look.  "It isn't 'stuff', Enzo, it's business deals and partnerships and agreements.  I have to make sure I do my fair share of the deal.  Right now I'm trying to have Al's Wait and Eat agree to a partnership with me.  And then I have all these to input and…" Dot became yet again engrossed with her work.

            Enzo rested his chin on his hand.  _So much for that, _he thought_, And I thought Ms. Brodie's version 2.0_(2nd grade)_ class was hard!  _Still, it was pretty neat having a sister who already owned one-fifth of Mainframe's business and growing.  Even if it did take really long for her to do whatever she did.

            "All finished," grinned Dot, pleased at her work.

            "Really?"

            "Yep."

            Enzo shifted his hat over to the side more.  "Can we access a byte to eat?"

            "Sure," Dot leaned back more comfortably in her seat, "Why don't we eat here?"

            "Does that mean I'm gunna have to pay you?" he asked honestly.

            Dot laughed.  "No.  It's on me."  She beckoned to Cecil again and processed her order.  Cecil quickly turned and hurried off before Enzo could add onto the list.  For the first time in a long time, she had been feeling really happy, no longer so empty anymore. She felt a twinge of guilt for her happiness, but she brushed it aside.  Now wasn't the time, she had no reason to feel guilty for being happy again.  

All her friends, coworkers, customers, and especially Phong and Enzo had been so supportive of her.  She had plunged herself into work to keep any thoughts other than business from seeping in, although she wasn't sure this was exactly what Phong had meant by 'taking action'.  Playing business woman and being a parent for Enzo wasn't easy, but it was certainly better than drowning in sorrow, and she had finally gotten a rhythm back into her life that she needed.  The Diner was open with other promising businesses, the upgrade would be here soon (that's why she wanted to get her 'stuff' together before Phong cut the power), and friends, family, and not to mention customers were with her.  Dot smiled inwardly.  Things couldn't have possibly played out any better.  

* * *

            Phong searched for his lost cup of cocoa, only to find it still in his hand.  He was sure he had set it down…  Taking another sip, he put his cup on a floating table off to the side, careful to remember it's location.  Power down was next cycle, and so many preparations had to be made.  Phong was feeling rather anxious about the power down, although, to be honest with himself, he didn't really know why.  Ever since the explosion that created Lost Angles, too many odd things happened, too many coincidences.  All of which tied to the hopelessly explained incident of Lost Angles.

            "Perhaps I am just paranoid.  It seems the incident of Lost Angles has shaken me even deeper than first thought" Phong said quietly to himself, taking a sip of his warm coco.  Once the upgrade came, he would be able to relax.  He wondered what would come with the upgrade.  But first, where did he set his coco again?

* * *

            Dot looked over her shoulder to see Enzo waving goodbye.  Phong had invited her and a few other friends of his for the opening of the contents of the Upgrade.  The whole city was buzzing in anticipation.  Cecil gave a short wave, and herded Enzo inside.

            When she arrived at the walkway leading onto the Principle Office, Dot waved to some CPU flyers she knew overhead and joined a group being led in by Phong.

            "So, Number 9, how's your back?" Phong asked the numeral. 9 gave a short shrug and rolled his eyes.  Phong turned to Dot.  "Are we all ready?"  Everyone nodded.

            Once at the pinnacle of the Principle Office, Phong called out "_Pinnacle Elite, Core Control!"_ and the sphere lowered slowly into the Core Control Chamber.  When the pinnacle had arrived at the chamber, Dot was astounded by the size.  The chamber glowed a warm green, but was fairly small, almost like an island.  But the inside, the hollow spherical area containing the control chamber was enormous, almost surreal.  It almost seemed to have transfinite parameters, just like the Archives.  Dot felt the inside start to hum to life.  

            Phong stood levelly at the center of the core control platform.  He saw Dot looking around in awe with the others and smiled.  This was her first time in here, wasn't it?  The last time they had had an Upgrade, both Welman and his wife had been present.  Had it really been so long ago?  Phong wondered what Dot must be feeling right now.  The old sprite turned to an open vidwindow.

_            "_Citizens of Mainframe, please prepare for the power down at once.  I repeat, please prepare for the power down immediately."

***

            Megabyte could hardly suppress his grin.  It was all starting _now._

            "Rally the troops," he snapped, "I want the nearest sector contained and ready for infection the _instant_ the power down takes place."

* * *

Hexadecimal looked up at the sky.  It was getting darker.  My, what was happening?  Oh, who cared?  It was certainly entertaining.  Was the system going to crash?  Hexadecimal put on a happy face.  This was going to be _so much fun!_

            "Scuzzy, take a look at this." Hexadecimal smiled.  Scuzzy sputtered and started to deflate.  Hexadecimal grew impatient.  "Are you listening to me?" she yelled, but Scuzzy was silent, a victim of the power down, having been assembled loosely from different components of appliances found by Hexadecimal.  The virus turned away.  Scuzzy was being boring right now, so she shouldn't waste the light show for it right now.

            Hexadecimal stared up for a while at the dim sky, then grew irritated.  That was it?  Hmph, if this is big news for the Mainframers, well, she would have to show them some _real fun_, wouldn't she?  She was about to go off to uproot a building or something of the sort, when the sky suddenly blazed of yellow.

**ATTENTION.  INCOMING UPGRADE.**

**ATTENTION.  INCOMING UPGRADE.**

Hexadecimal's eyes reflected the same yellow in the sky.  My, it was very pretty…

* * * 

Dot squinted.  It was so bright!  She remembered how big the upgrade had seemed watching from her family's apartment when she was little, but up close it seemed even more awing.  Mainframe's sky swirled and mixed of yellow, a sea of light coating the sky.  A monotonous female voice alerted the system of the upgrade, and a box the size of a dozen containment units hurtled down.  It landed impossibly perfect onto the platform given the speed it came down at.  The sky lingered a warm yellow for a nano more, and evaporated.  All eyes fell from the sky onto the box.

            "Shall we see what's inside, my children?" Phong asked cheerily as he reached the box.

* * *

            Phong turned to a vidwindow leading to the population of Mainframe and reported, "Citizens of Mainframe, power up has been completed, and all communication and travel is back to normal.  I am very pleased to inform you the upgrade was a complete success.  We have received from the User a paint program, a viral erase command, and a word processing program with an attachment added on.  All files have been put into application and will be stored in the Archives later on.  If you have any questions or concerns, the command.com and I will be happy to answer you at the following number."

            Dot read the number posted on the vidwindow announcing the news in Mainframe's sky.  She wondered if the command.com was really Phong.  He seemed to do everything for the command.com and—

            "DOT!"

            Dot looked around.  Enzo had popped up right beside her.  She had only gotten in the Diner a nano ago…that little guy was fast!  "Dot!" Enzo cried in suspense, "what was it like?  It must have been so cool to see it up close!  When I'm older, can I see it too?  What was it like?  Was it fun?  I heard that something exploded!  Did something explode?  Oh, can Frisket come too and maybe—"

            "Enzo!"

            "Huh?"

            Dot heaved a sigh.  "How about we sit down and I'll tell you every little detail, okay—", Dot stopped.  Enzo was already in a chair halfway through her sentence.  She shook her head and sat down.  After Enzo had drilled her about how "alphanumeric" the upgrade was up close, Dot went to explain the contents.

            "Phong put the paint and business program into the archives, along with Dad's backup portal hardware," she said, careful not to wince and the thought of her father, "The viral erase command is being researched in accordance with the stuff the guardians gave us."

            "Like Bob?"

            "Yeah," she affirmed, "and the attachment added on the word processor was opened and applied, but it seemed to be mostly useless data.  That might get put in the archives too."

            Enzo grinned.  An upgrade, how cool!  And Dot got to see it.  Enzo admitted to himself he was a little jealous of his big sister.  She_ always_ had something to do.  But Dot had promised that she would let him see an upgrade when he was an adult, and when it was safer.  He could barely wait until then.  Enzo wiped his nose with his sleeve and took a quick sip of his energy shake.

* * *

            Megabyte was tired, but it was a good tired.  The infection had been an absolute success.  He now held sway over a hefty chunk of the population.  It was draining having to infect all of those sprites and binomes himself, but it was so satisfying watching their faces change from horror and hopeless defiance to total, undying loyalty.  He ran his hand along the smooth console.  Damn, this felt good.

* * *

            Phong took off his glasses.  This couldn't be happening…a viral infection?  The reports of endless missing citizens, and then the construction of an ominous red building.  No doubt.  They had a virus.  Wasn't losing the Twin City at the hands of a virus enough?

            "Thank you, my son" Phong said weakly to the CPU, the deliverer of this new bad news.  He closed out of the vidwindow and stared hard into the blank floor, although not really focusing.  The only way the virus could have entered this system was through the upgrade.  It seemed the attachment added to the word processing program truly wasn't as empty as he had thought it was.  How could he have been so careless?  And this virus's infection rate was off the charts.  The upgrade had been just last second…and already a fifth of Mainframe was infected.  What to do now…what kind of action should he take?  

            Stealth and cunning seemed to be this virus's biggest weapons.  Phong doubted this new virus infected so many by brute force.  His infection would be slowed greatly if revealed…however, Phong worried the virus may use more drastic measures to continue.  Binomes and sprites would be sure to suffer, regardless if they were infected or not.  But there seemed to be little other choice.  He could not sit by and watch a virus consume Mainframe.  He and others would have to rise up and face this new threat, only then could Mainframe be able to resist this new virus.

* * *

            Enzo reached to retrieve his yoyo from under a table.  His hands found it and he got up, banging his head on the table.  He rubbed his head tenderly and found Cecil talking to Dot, both with very serious looks on their faces.  Uh-oh.  Did Cecil find out _he_ was the one who spilt the energy shake on the food processor?  Enzo hesitated, but decided to go over and ask what was up anyway.

            "Um, hi guys.  What's up?"

            "A new virus, that's what.  Just got a report today." Cecil replied knowingly, wiping back his hair.

            Enzo gaped.  "A new virus?  What's it like?  Is it big and scary with a zillion teeth and twenty heads and acid stingers?  Is anyone hurt?  Are they okay?  What is the virus doing?  Why didn't Phong tell everyone about it on the big screen in the sky, so everybody can see it?"

            Cecil huffed and said, "Phong didn't air it in the sky because if the _virus_ saw it, it may attack.  That's why he sent everyone personal e-mails.  He didn't say what it is, or what it looks like, but it's seems dangerous enough, I suppose because of it's infection abilities.  That's why everyone is going under special guard until everything gets dealt with.  Does _that_ clear everything up for you, young master?"  Enzo was about to ask more, but Cecil didn't wait for him and tracked off.

            Dot tapped the corner of her organizer with her finger.  A virus.  She was already sick with them, what they did to the Twin City.  Well, she was going to support Phong's campaign to stand up to the virus all the way.  Mr. Pearson had been in here earlier today, with his aroma, going on about how he'd can the virus if it ever set foot on his good property.  She hoped the rest of Mainframe was up to it too.

* * *

            Megabyte was busy fantasizing about how wonderful it would be once he had Mainframe under his control, when he was interrupted by an opening vidwindow.  He turned his console around to face his intrusion, and found Hexadecimal grinning toothily down at him.

            "Ah, Hexadecimal.  How _is_ my lesser half?" he chided nastily.  

Both Hexadecimal and Megabyte noticed that the other was inspecting their fingernails at the same time and both put their hands down immediately.  

Hexadecimal ignored Megabyte's comment, and smiled back, seemingly benevolent.  "My dear Megabyte, such _quiet_ chaos you've caused!  This is even more interesting a result than that small stampede of nulls I sent to the Kits sector." Hexadecimal laughed loudly, but stopped abruptly and went on.  "Now they have people walking in pairs, and CPUs crawling everywhere.  I had to dispose of some that trailed to close to my _new lair_ here at Lost Angles."

"What do you mean by that?  Walking in pairs?  CPUs?" Megabyte asked suspiciously.

Hexadecimal snickered at her brother's lack of knowledge.  "Why, Phong had sent an e-mail out to all the registered PIDs of this system.  Scuzzy happened to hack into one of these e-mails and extract the information for me," she answered.  Reading Megabyte's confused expression, Hexadecimal pointed to Scuzzy.  "That's Scuzzy, my pet.  Wave hello, Scuzzy!"

Leaning back in his control console, Megabyte scowled and asked "And you contacted me for what reason?"

"Scuzzy and I have noticed your lapdogs circling around my perimeters." Hexadecimals eyes turned red.  "You wouldn't be up to something, now would you?  There's…nothing of interest here, so why bother sending your minions here?"

"Oh, you know.  Making room for my infection.  Nothing to be so moody about." Megabyte responded nonchalantly.

"Well, infect in the other direction.  I can't control my hungry nulls _all_ the time…"

Megabyte was about to retort something nasty to Hexadecimal's threat, but the had closed out the vidwindow before he could speak.  He was hardly interested in Lost Angles, but finding a way to contain Hexadecimal was definitely a priority.  Herr Doktor had some plans to offer, but he was busy working on his two new robot helpers at the moment…

* * *

Igor waddled towards Herr Doktor with the two new robot's brains in a jar.  He _could've_ been able to walk faster, if only his foot hadn't been a brick…The Doktor stood ready at the table with the two new robots, Hack and Slash, ready for their brains to be placed inside their craniums.

"Vill you _hurry up_?  Ve haven't all cycle!  Lord Megabyte vants dem ready as soon as possible!  _Hurry up!"  _Herr Doktor shouted impatiently from the table, his heavy accent marring his words.

Igor laughed at how funny the Doktor looked when he got mad, and stumbled over his brick foot.  The jar, and the brains, went flying.  They crashed and splattered right in front of Herr Doktor, now piping mad.  "_ACK_!  You _nincompoop_!  Look what you have _done_!  Now Lord Megabyte vill have our _heads_!"

The malformed binome went into great sobbing tears at his accident.  Herr Doktor sighed, and his shoulders slumped.  "Ah, you big baby.  Here, get a dustpan and sveep up da mess.  Ve'll put da brain remains in da heads anyway, and Lord Megabyte vill be none da wiser."  Igor sniffled the last of his tears away and went to work.

"Hack and Slash here!"

"Ready for our first mission, sir!"

"At your command, sir!"

"Just say the word, and we're on it!"

"Like a null on energy!"

"You betcha!"

"Ready to go!"

"QUIET!"

"Yessir!"

"As you wish, O metal-plated one!"

Megabyte looked at Herr Doktor, and raised an eyebrow.  "And you are telling me _these_ are my new 'right hand robots'?

Herr Doktor nodded vigorously, Igor right behind him.  "Yes, my lord.  Zhey are state of da art, veaponry enhanced battle robots.  Da very best ve could come up vith." Herr Doktor answered, starting to sweat at the brow.  

Megabyte's scowl changed into unbelieving exasperation.  This was the best they could come up with?  Taking over Mainframe may be harder than he thought.  "They seem like a pair of _scatterbrains_ to me," he sighed.

Herr Doktor and Igor exchanged nervous glances.

* * *

            Dot drummed her fingers on a table at the diner.  Honestly, she spent more time here than she did at home.  She wondered how Mr. Pearson was doing.  He hadn't sent in any banking requests, or threats of what he'd do the next time Enzo came onto his property.  Dot also worried about Al.  Al and her were very close.  Both he and Mr. Pearson were on the borderline of the virus's territory…she hoped nothing bad had happened.  

Enzo whirled in.  He promptly plopped next to Dot.  "Hey sis!  Hey…what's a matter?"

"Just a little concerned, that's all."

"Ohhhh, it's 'bout that virus, huh?"

Dot blinked.  "Yeah."

Enzo sniffed with a small degree of pride.  "Don't worry, Mrs. Brodie and all the other teachers have made us do virus drills," Enzo noticed Dots curious expression and added, "Yeah, we all hide under our desks while one of the teachers call Phong, then we sneak out the back.  Some new trap door they're building!  It goes underground 'n stuff.  We had a drill today.  Mrs. Brodie, she got stuck!  Boy, it was funny.  We laughed hard until she gave us detentions…yea.  That's why I was late.  Um, sorry.  Anyways…"

Dot sighed inwardly.  Drills?  That would never help…especially set up like that.  That virus would have its infected slaves everywhere.  It would never matter where you ran.  And Enzo…

Dot spoke up.  "Enzo, I—" she couldn't bring herself to finish.  This was too much for a little kid.  Too much for her.  She should mind her own business.  Enzo looked back, waiting for her to finish.  "Um.  Enzo," she smiled weakly, "_how_ did they get Mrs. Brodie out?"  Enzo immediately became animated and gesticulated enthusiastically as Dot watched him and sighed again.

* * *

Al Waiter's handed out some stale food.  Heh, they actually paid for this stuff.  He felt like barking a laugh, but the smell of the food drowned that out quickly.  A numeral, Number 8, asked again for his food. 

"Sorry, chum.  Coffee break."

"BUT I BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOOD SINCE I WAS FOUR!"

Al's Waiter sighed.  "What's you number?"

"Eight!  Are you blind?"

Al's Waiter resisted the urge to roll his eyes.  "I meant your ticket, buddy."

Number 8 rattled off his number and handed in the ticket.  "See here?  I'm next.  Gimme my food!"

Al's Waiter looked at the ticket, then tore it up.  "Not anymore.  Please take another ticket and wait your turn, pal."  Number 8 screamed fury, and Al's Waiter

 walked into the back room.  The trash heap over flowed the garbage can.  Al's Waiter decided it could wait till next cycle.  He called out to Al, "Hey!  You gunna vidwindow Dot or am I gunna have to do that too?"

"What?!"

"Yes, then, huh?" Al's Waiter mumbled to himself and dialed for Dot.  They were supposed to have another meeting, business and such.  Whatever.  Dot surprised face popped in front of him.  "Meet Al and me tomarrow here, OK?  Same old, same old," he said, and closed out the vidwindow bleakly before Dot could respond.  He heard the new roller skater waiter trying to calm down Number 8 out front, much to failure.  Al's Waiter sat on a stack of food to be delivered and picked his teeth.

Dot tried to utter a word to Al's Waiter before he closed out, but was cut off.  Oh well.  A trip to Sector 31 again.  Maybe she should surprise Enzo and pick him up from school.  She would have to keep a sharp eye to keep him from launching himself into trouble, but that wasn't really a problem for him to tag along.  Turning to her organizer, she started reorganizing her schedule to find adequate time to meet with Al.  It was _very _time consuming to have business meetings with him.

* * *

Enzo desperately tried to suppress a giggle.  A repairman got stuck in the tunnels out as Mrs. Brodie told him, "Now, I told you it was far to small!"  The bell rung and Enzo longed for the door, but Mrs. Brodie was still in a fowl mood, and only dismissed them after they were all seated perfectly.  He raced to freedom, and waved goodbye to some of his binome friends.  Dot stood at the corner and smiled.

"Hey, Dot!  What're you doin' here?"

"Mm…I have a business meeting with Al, and decided to take you with me." Dot said.

Enzo was happy to be picked up.  And even happier to go to level Thirty-One.  Dot NEVER let him go there unless he was under her tight supervision.  He nodded and took her hand as she led him to their car.

The contrast between level Thirty-One and the rest of Mainframe was sharp.  Everything was dim and wet on this side of town, and the null problem was horrendous.  A red tower stuck out sorely in the distance.  Dot walked towards Al's Wait and Eat, Enzo tagging along closely behind her.  The florescent sign flickered persistently, refusing to go all the way out.  A crash came from inside, and shouting followed.  That was pretty typical of Al's, except the people inside came rushing out.  Fights at Al's normally had people running in to watch, not running out in panic.  Dot grabbed Enzo's hand and led him to the side of the building.

"Enzo, stay here.  Don't go with ANYONE.  If you're in trouble, shout for help, alright?" Dot instructed.  Enzo's round face nodded back, full of worry.  She turned and walked inside, and found the room being torn apart by a couple of robots.  Al and Al's waiter were being held in the corner, and all the other customers were fleeing out to any exit they could find.  Dot ran to Al and Al's Waiter to see if they were okay.  The two matching robots whirled around and spotted Dot.

"Hey you!"

"You there!"

"Freeze, lady!"

"DON'T make me use this!"

Dot asked, "Who are you?  What's going on?"

Al's Waiter answered for the robots, "Those two are called Flap and Jack—"

"HACK AND SLASH!"

"Get it right!"

"—And they're smashin' up the place for our money and our lives!  Those two work for the virus!  They blew up the garbage disposal!  How will this dump ever be able to function again?" 

"WHAT?!" Al shouted in despair.

The two robots bristled and headed towards them.  Dot stood her ground.  Both robots loomed over them, and capture was pretty certain.  Then a voice rang out:  "What're you two doing?  You should have finished ages ago!  Let's get going!"  A huge armored tank hovered outside the door, operated by a viral binome.  Hack and Slash stumbled over each other and emptied the cash drawer, and a pile of greasy food, into a bag before they wheeled into the waiting tank.  The tank sped off.

All of them breathed a sigh of relief.  Dot stopped mid-breath, and ran outside to find Enzo.  He was gone!

"SIS!"

Wheeling in the direction of the voice, Dot saw Enzo running from behind some ruins in the distance.  They hugged for a moment and Dot asked, "Enzo!  I thought I told you to stay put!  Why didn't you stay?"

"Sorry, but they woulda seen me.  They had tanks out back!  They were huge!  And—and, they said somethin' 'bout getting ready to move into another sector!  That's why they're lootin', maybe." Enzo explained.

Another sector?  _That means the virus isn't playing around anymore_, Dot thought.  They needed to warn Phong!  Dot whipped out her organizer and dialed his number.

* * *

            Phong had just received a nasty call from Mr. Pearson about the mess the virus's flunkies had caused him, and how he was going to give them a piece of him mind next time when Dot called, looking very worried.

            "Yes, my child?  What is the matter?" Phong asked.

            "Phong, I think the virus knows were onto him.  Enzo overheard them talking about expanding by force…" Dot looked questioningly over her shoulder at Enzo, who nodded, affirming.

            "I see.  Thank you Dot.  I will have the system on alert immediately"  Phong paused then said, "Dot, you and Enzo should come to the Principle Office.  I could use the help, especially hearing young Enzo's discovery, and it would be much safer."

            "Right.  Thanks Phong."  Dot said and closed out.  "Al?  Are you okay?"

            "What?"

            "I guess that's a 'yes'…Enzo?  Let's go!

            "Okay!"

            "Al?  Were leaving for the principle office.  Stay safe!  We'll be back!"

            "**_WHAT?!_**"


	3. Incoming Game

* * *

            Megabyte viewed the vidwindows surveying the areas he wished to gain control of.  It was apparent that Mainframe knew of his existence now.  No matter.  It was too late to stop him now.  Now, he planned to push his boundaries as close to the Principle office as possible without threatening the Principle Office into an all-out war.

            Hack and Slash were not entirely as useless as they first appeared to be.  Of course, that was because they were designed to be muscle, not brain.  He had sent the bumbling fools out to rustle the locals.  Since he was now known, the best thing to do was to intimidate the citizen of Mainframe with his presence.  It would be easy to terrify them into submission.  There was some profit made too…not that it was really necessary, labor was cheap.  Hehe.

            Megabyte contacted his sergeant.  "Begin attacking and rounding up the next sector over.  Alert my servants to bring my new limo here.  I want to be present for the latest conquest."

"Yessir."

            The vidwindow closed out, and Megabyte looked over his soon-to-be new realm.  Perfect.

* * *

            "You can zipboard that well?" Dot asked Enzo, surprised.

            "Duh! 'Course I can!" Enzo piped and sped faster.  They were a short distance away from the Priciple office, but Enzo could already see CPU's buzzing around on alert.  Enzo spotted some more of the tanks hovering near the perimeter around the Principle Office.  They seemed stationed to the lower sectors of Mainframe, like Level 31, and waiting to get closer to the edge of the Principle Office.  He noticed Dot's worried expression.  Boy, something big must be brewing!

            "Dot?" Enzo was about to ask, but an explosion boomed between the tanks and the CPU's.  Somebody had fired the first shot.  Dot and Enzo were unsteadied by the blast, but kept going.  Enzo felt his big sister pull on his hand to lead him to the Principle Office at a safer difference from the building confrontation between the virus and Mainframe.  They zipped lower and curved their path to keep safe.  Another boom, followed by another trembled through the sky, and a series of shots broke out.  Dot could hear the scramble sirens screaming from the Principle Office, and CPUs rose up in a swarm.  The tanks seemed undaunted, and more of their comrades rose slowly from dark alleyways.  The explosions became louder and more threatening, and the fighting broke loose.

* * *

            "Who fired?" Phong demanded.  He did not want the fighting to start so soon!  This was terrible!

            "One of the virals, sir.  A confrontation looks inevitable." A binome operating the chief CPU answered.

            "I see.  Is there anyway we can delay this until evacuation is complete?"

            "I don't think so.  We already spotted tanks moving to cut off the evacuation.  Despite the danger to citizens here…I don't think we can wait any longer.  We need to start restraining them by force, and evacuate while the fighting keeps the virals busy," the binome said factually.  Phong nodded.

            "Thank you, my son.  I will sound the alarm to alert the rest of the CPUs.  Please be careful" Phong said, and closed out the window.  This was indeed terrible.  It had seemed like just last cycle the virus had arrived somehow in the attachment of one of the upgrade's programs.  He hadn't expected the virus would become so aggressive so early.  Evacuations were incomplete and citizens vulnerable to attack.  Plus, Dot and Enzo were riding out in the open out there.  Phong regretted that he put them in such danger.  He hoped they were safe…

* * *

            Enzo felt another shattering boom.  The fight was spreading out and coming closer.  A tank suddenly whizzed by.  Enzo dipped and dodged to get out of the way.  Dot grabbing his hand and gave up on trying to get around the fight.  Now it was impossible.  The only way was through.  She sped up, Enzo right behind her.  Another boom rang out, but this time it was _very_ close.  A shock wave knocked Enzo off his board and sent him flying to the ground.  Dot cried out, and swerved her board downward.  She zoomed after him, closing the distance between them.  The ground rushed forward, and Dot grabbed Enzo roughly around the waist just in time.  Dot tried to swivel the board upright again, but inertia got the better of them and sent Dot and Enzo grinding into asphalt.  Enzo skidded to a stop and felt his hands raw.

            "Are you okay?" Dot asked, a little ripped and torn, but okay.

            Enzo wiped his hands gently on his pants.  "I think so," he responded, then piped, "Dot!  You saved my bitmap!  Where did ya learn a random move like that?"

            Dot just smiled and winked.  "C'mon," she said and grabbed his hand once more, "we need to get the heck outta here."  They looked around, and could hear the battle getting more serious overhead, and other citizens of Mainframe were scrambling to get out of the way.  Both of them were stuck in the middle of this mess.  Things seemed to be as bad as they could get.

***WARNING; INCOMING GAME***

***WARNING; INCOMING GAME***

* * *

            Megabyte threw an irritated glance at the sky.  Incoming game?  Now?  Oh, of all the timing…wait…maybe the game could nullify a sector and he could move in.  That would be convenient.  He had learned a little about the games through some of his servants, _very_ few of which had actually survived a game.  All that he needed to know was to avoid them.  He looked up at the sky along with everyone else, waiting to see where it would drop.  The sky turned a brilliant purple, and a funnel formed overhead.  Binomes had already been put into a panic around him, and he at last saw the infamous cube of the game.  Right above him. 

            "SERGEANT!  Get everyone out of here now!  Where is my limo?"

            "Sorry sir, but the CPU's have cut us off.  We weren't anticipating a game!  There's no way we can escape it!" the binome replied, frantic.

            Megabyte looked up.  The game cube was descending impossibly fast.  It looked as if it would crush him.  Megabyte felt a twinge of fear as the game crashed down over him, and he found himself immersed in purple.

Binomes off in the distance saw the game fall right on top of the battlefield.  The 'tanks' and CPUs were swallowed whole.  When the cube settled, it landed over part of the sector under siege, the wall and 'moat' of the Principle Office, and a fraction of the Principle Office itself.  It was as if everything had been consumed.

* * *

            Dot saw purple everywhere around her for a nanosecond, then she suddenly found herself in a jungle atmosphere.  Enzo gaped beside her.  An artificial heat pulsed heavily down on them, and sweaty green plants seemed to grow everywhere.  The dirt was strangely dry and firm.  Off in the distance, where the Principle Office would be, was a massive stone pyramid rising out of the ground.  The siblings exchanged glances.  This was the first time they had ever been in a game.

            "What should we do now?" Enzo asked, trembling.

            "I—I'm not really sure" Dot stammered.  She paused and then straightened up.  "Let's ReBoot.  If we're stuck here, we should make the best of it, right?"

            "But what about the User?  And the CPUs?"

            "Well, the only chance we have of getting out of this is if we help win the game.  So let's just roll up our sleeves and get to work."  Dot placed her hand over her icon and double-clicked, "ReBoot!" and found herself in a khaki jungle explorer's outfit, complete with big black boots and and hat.  She really had no idea what she was doing, but from those who had survived the game, she had heard the best thing to do if caught in a game was to reboot and fight, or don't and hide.  It seemed hiding wasn't going to accomplish anything, and with the tanks and CPU's fighting, it was going to be difficult to get them together to win.

            "Me too, Dot?" Enzo asked, excited.

            Dot didn't like putting her little brother into danger, but keeping him with her seemed like the best idea.  If he hid, the game sprites, the virals, or the User, who may still attack, might find him.  Sticking together would be better protection, and Dot would know where he was if they won and the game cube lifted.  She certainly didn't want to leave him all alone somewhere in this confrontation where she couldn't find him.  "Yeah, you too," she responded.

            Enzo double-clicked his icon and shouted "ReBoot!" loudly.  A flash of green followed just like Dot's, and Enzo was in a colorful tropical warrior dress up.  He looked himself over and said, "Alphanumeric!  My first game!"  Dot looked around for clues to the game.  The only thing that seemed to stand out was the great stone pyramid that stood in the direction of the Principle office.  Very fitting that part of the Principle Office inside the game was reconstructed into such an important structure to the game.

            After she finished, Dot looked back at Enzo and said, "The pyramid looks like the only place to go," Dot took out a pistol on her belt, "Ready?"

Enzo slung out his poison bows and arrow.  "Yup!" he exclaimed.

            They both held their weapons ready and beat a path along the plants as stealthily as they could.  The air was moist and thick, and small bugs buzzed relentlessly around them.  The pyramid was actually much farther away than it looked, and after swatting and beating away plants and vines for what seemed an eternity, they reached the base and saw how massive it really was.  Behind the pyramid lay the game wall.  Dot sighed as she realized how close they were to being out of the games path.  An ominous door loomed in the front, leading into a dark pathway into the structure.  On the sides were decorated carvings showing different types of rituals, many involving strange animals.  Dot went to inspect these closer, but heard voices coming towards their direction.

            Enzo turned his head in the direction of the noise.  "Are those whatcha-callits?  Umm, game sprites?" he asked nervously.

            "Dunno," Dot answered, "Let's hide."  Both of them crawled in a nearby thicket and watched.  The bushes shuddered and binomes came out.  However, these binomes were dressed in dark blue, and looked militaristic.  "Virals?" Dot wondered.  Sounds of crashing trees came down as tanks tried to move through the dense forest unsuccessfully.

            "Sorry, sir.  It looks like the tanks are not going to be of much use in this game.  Seems the CPU's are having the same trouble on the other side.  They've already mobilized on foot, and we think most of them are already inside this here pyramid, or otherwise dealing with game sprites," a viral called out into the jungle, looking around nervously for game sprites.

            A dark figure emerged from the forest.  He was dark, dark blue, metal plated and well built, with a large red crest sweeping back from his cranium, and a skull-like emblem marked in bright green on his front side.  His features were very sharply defined and powerful, and he held a wave of authority in the air, especially towards the virals.  Dot frowned in realization: this must be the virus.  Enzo caught on as well, and his eyebrows flew up.  The virus was certainly intimidating in looks, but the real impression came from how he felt, like a dark, cancerous presence.  Malevolence seemed barely contained by his features.  The virus turned to his viral slave and asked, "Yes.  Tell me, has all of Mainframe been converted like this?" 

            "No, sir.  Only the part that the game comes down on.  The object here is to defeat the User and win the game."

            "And if we lose?" the virus asked.

            "If we lose…we become nullified, Lord Megabyte."

            "Megabyte.  So that's the virus," Dot whispered, and Enzo nodded numbly.

            Megabyte felt a twinge of fear go up his spine again.  There was a very real chance of deletion now.  How had things gone so wrong?  His attack on the Principle Office had been thrown aside.  Survival took priority now.  "If we win?"  Megabyte pressed.

            "The game cube will lift and everything will return to normal, sir."

Good.  That meant they would be safe…until the CPUs got their act together and resumed attack.  Then he would have to back away from being too close to the border of the Principle Office.  Maybe later he could…wait…there might be an advantage to this game.  Megabyte turned to his slave and asked insistently, "So everything inside the game has been recompiled?  Including the Principle Office and its defenses?"

            The viral blinked in confusion and responded dumbly, "I would think so sir.  But the part of the Principle Office inside the game is probably on the far edge, at the back of the inside of the pyramid, considering where we were just when the game hit.  We would have to enter and fight our way to get through there."

            "_Excellent!"_ the Megabyte laughed.  He snapped towards his men, "Everyone!  I want you all to aid me in reaching the far end of this structure.  Leave winning the game to the CPUs.  Stay out of their way and don't attack.  It is vital we reach the opposite end of inside the pyramid before they win the game."  Megabyte paused and added to himself, "If they win."

            "I don't get it," Enzo whispered, "Why are they going into the pyramid if they're not trying to win the game?"

            Dot had already figured it out, her face full of worry.  "They're taking advantage of the game restructuring everything.  With the Principle Office defenses changed into the game matter, the virus, Megabyte, can get past them.  If the CPU's win, and he's where the inside of the Principle Office would be, when the game lifts and everything changes back to normal, he's already past the walls and shields and _inside _the Principle Office, where Phong works!"

            "Oh boy!" Enzo squeaked, "This is bad!  Very bad!  What about the defenses inside the Principle Office?"

            Dot frowned and said, "I don't think so, Enzo.  Nobody will have any idea he's inside before it's too late.  He may be able to get to the Core before the security system can register he's a threat, so—"

            "HEY!"

            "STOP RIGHT THERE!"

            "DON'T MOVE A MUSCLE!"

            Enzo and Dot whirled around and saw the matching red and blue robots, Hack and Slash.  The two robots grabbed them roughly and dragged them out into the open, towards Megabyte.  Megabyte was surprised to see someone hiding in the bushes, and even more surprised to it was none other than Dot and Enzo Matrix, the spawn of his dear pet.  He quickly recovered and remarked nastily, "My!  It's a small system after all!  Tell me, do _all_ Matrixs' reduce to eavesdropping?"

            "Hey!  Leggo of me!" Enzo shouted, squirming.  "You won't get away with this, _Megabreath_!"

            Megabyte gave him an amused, contemptuous look, and turned to Dot.  She was quite…lovely.  For a sprite.  Her rebooted uniform was rather distastful, though.  He brought himself to eyelevel with the restrained Dot Matrix and saw her angry, determined expression.  _The typical sprite look,_ he mused.  "So," Megabyte sneered, "what brings our intrepid explorers to this region, hm?"  When Dot refused to answer, and deeped her look, Megabyte laughed.  "Take them into one of the ABC's until the game is finished," Megabyte ordered, keeping eye contact with Dot until the word 'finished'.  Dot could hear his unsure undertone.  Hack and Slash started to carry them off, Enzo still squirming, when a cry rang out.

            "INCOMING GAME SPRITES!  LOOK OUT!"

            Viral binomes scattered and Megabyte shot a dark look towards the direction of the voice.  The tree and plants shook and a group of glossy, muscular black cats emerged from the jungle.  They were both large and lithe, and immediately started attacking anyone in their way.  Chaos broke out.  Megabyte furiously tried to get his groups under control for this sudden attack, and Hack and Slash bumbled over what to do.  Dot took advantage off this and shouted to them in a falsely frantic and concerned voice, "You two!  What are you doing?  You're supposed to be doing your job!  Protect Megabyte, remember?  He's going to need your help!  Don't just stand there!"

            "Oh, yeah!"

            "Yeah, we gotta go save him!"

            Hack and Slash started to scooter towards him, but Dot stopped them sharply. "HEY!  You need to put us down if you're going to fight!  That way you'll have both your arms ready to fight.  Hurry!"

            "Oops!  Sorry, lady!"

            "What he said.  Sorry!"

            "Here you go."

            "Now don't move!"

            The two robots hurtled themselves into the battle.  Dot and Enzo grinned at each other, and raced for the entrance to the pyramid.  As they ran through the doorway, booby trap button set on the ground tripped them and sent them tumbling.  Then they both saw a huge stone slab slowly rolling in front of the doorway behind them.  The grinding noise it made caught Megabyte's attention away from the game sprites.  He whirled and saw Dot and Enzo standing behind the closing doorway.  Dot could see Megabyte glaring malevolently at her, and led Enzo away quickly.  Furious, Megabyte raced towards the closing doorway.  A game sprite leapt towards him, ready to delete.  Megabyte's retractable claws extended instantly with a sharp metal 'shing', and he dodged the sprite in time to escape its wrath.  He swung he claws in a tight arc, and the game sprite's head went rolling.  Hack and Slash were pummeling the other cat game sprites, and ferocious shrieks sounded out.  Megabyte resumed his dash to the door.  He reached the door just in time to maybe squeeze his claws in the crack to stop the door from all the way closing.  The virus hesitated; as he didn't want to take the risk of damaging his claws, no matter how durable they were.  The doorway sealed shut, and the last of the game sprites had ran off or been deleted.  "HACK!  SLASH!" Megabyte ordered, moving away from the sealed stone door, "Blast this door in at once!"

            "Gotcha!"

            "Bombs away!"

            Missles bristled from seemingly out of nowhere on the two robots, and the missles shot towards the door and exploded on impact.

* * *

            Dot felt the ground shake below her.  It seemed Megabyte was trying to break down the door.  _Well, I guess our dumb luck will buy us time to get ahead,_ she thought_, I just wonder what kind of luck it is.  If Megabyte can't bust down the door, then his plan is foiled.  But we don't know the format of this game, leaving the pyramid with whatever we're supposed to find or conquer in here may be a part of the game, and that exit might be the only way out.  I probably shouldn't have ran in here blindly…what we need is a plan.  _Dot remembered seeing the malice from the virus, Megabyte.  Winning back the parts he had infected wasn't going to be easy.  The ground shook again, and the dust on the walls rose up in a puff, unsettled.  Dot saw a light at the end of the tunnel.  She slowed to a walk, and Enzo nearly tripped.  They ignored the sounds behind them and made their way into an empty room, with an overly elaborate floor.  The tiles were strictly black and white, and made up a mosaic of a deity of some sort.  

            "What should we do, sis?"

            "Try shooting one of your arrows into the ground," Dot answered.  Enzo plucked an arrow from his quiver, and aligned it evenly with his bow.  He let go and the arrow shot out with unnatural perfection, a skill only acquired from the game's character download.  The arrow landed on a black tile.  A heavy spear fell from the roof and split the arrow where it lay.  Enzo then shot another arrow on a white tile.  The room stayed dormant.  

            "Shoot another white tile, Enzo."

            An arrow followed Dot's command and landed securely on another white tile.  The room still remained dormant.  Still not convinced, Dot took a round stone from the ground and rolled it along the floor of the room in front of them.  Every black tile it touched sent a heavy shaft careened down.  Every white tile it rolled on remained unaffected.

            "White tiles it is." Dot said and carefully walked along the white tiles of the mosaic.  Enzo followed precariously, and soon the two were on the other side.  "That challenge wasn't too hard," Dot remarked, "Of course, that was only the first one.  I doubt the next ones are going to be so simple."

* * *    

            The door in front of them still stood upright in defiance, but Hack and Slash's last barrage sent it crumbling.  Megabyte could feel his impatience building, and the slab doorway's collapse provided little relief.  He was already behind, and the chance of Dot warning any CPU's that might have already made it into the cave was too great.  He snapped at his virals to get moving, and they headed into the pyramid.  After a long, dark hallway, came a room with a large, decorative, black and white tile mosaic for a floor.  A number of black tiles had spears thrust solidly into them.  No white tile seemed to be struck.  It seemed Dot and Enzo had conveniently solved the puzzle for them, though it hardly seemed to be a challenging one.  Megabyte's seething over having been beaten by Dot and Enzo went down a little bit, and even felt good enough to smile.

* * *

            Hexadecimal wondered what had happened to the sky.  It had blazed a swirling, chaotic purple, and dropped a cube over Megabyte's little war game.  Hex wished she could have seen his face when the game hit.  Yes, games were very intriguing.  Such chaos they caused.  It was so amusing to watch the binomes run away, with their tiny little legs.  It was so amusing she felt like making them run _too_.  Hexadecimal admired her captives trapped on wheels she made in her lair.  They screamed so desperately to be let go!  She threw a blast of energy from her palms to a screaming captive binome on one of the wheels, and silenced him forever.  She pondered the silence for a while, comparing the screams to the silence.  Hexadecimal dismissed the rest of them to Scuzzy, whom could do with them whatever it pleased.

            Hmm, the nulls didn't like the games either.  Scuzzy had given her information that nulls were once binomes and sprites that lost in a game.  Megabyte would make an interesting null.  Phong would too…a null with a curly purple beard!  Hexadecimal cackled insanely.  Her laughter stopped immediately, as if turned off by a faucet.  This was old now.  She should make her presence known.

            Hexadecimal could feel a repressed feeling of fear in the nulls around lost angles.  The game scared them.  She tapped into their fear and used it to send them into a fit of panic.  Normally, she could only control a portion of the nulls in Mainframe, but with the game in town she could manipulate the fear of almost all the nulls to her bidding.  They scattered from Lost Angles and other parts of Mainframe and joined a swelling stampede of fear.  As the nulls chewed outward from her lair into Mainframe, Hex was sent into a rage of laughter as she spurred their fear of the games into a wild hysteria.  

* * *

            _Could this day possibly become any worse_, Phong asked himself.  The virus and most of the CPU's were trapped under the game cube, along with a sizable chunk of the Principle office.  While Phong admitted it would be nice to have the virus nullified, it would never be worth the cost of all those innocent lives trapped within it.  Phong wondered what had happened to Dot and Enzo.  He hadn't been expecting the fighting to start so abruptly…carelessness on his part.  Now the two young ones could be in mortal danger.  Swiveling around, Phong overviewed Mainframe again on the vidwindow.  At least he had managed to evacuate most of the area on or around the game.  And—and were those _nulls?!  _Phong craned his neck forward to look.

            "Vidwindow, magnify!" he commanded.

            The magnification showed his eyes had not been deceiving him.  The nulls were acting erratically, insanely all around Mainframe, except for a wide distance they kept around the game.  Thousands of nulls chewed through buildings, and swarmed over citizens.  Phong was stunned how much damage these nulls could do when grouped together like this.  Nulls had never attacked in such a manner before, what could possibly be causing them do this now?

            Phong ordered the vidwindow to widen range over the entire system, then ordered a highlight of the null's movement.  His brow furrowed as he saw most of the nulls seemed to be coming from Lost Angles.  It wasn't surprising that so many nulls had come from there, due to the fact that Lost Angles was the remains of the Twin City, but what could possibly be moving them like this?  "Vidwindow, scan for any strange anomalies."

            A small checkmark appeared at the bottom of the screen.  Phong double-clicked it.  The screen read out, _"Anomaly confirmed to be at Lost Angles.  Scan anomaly for format, yes/no?"  _He double clicked on yes, and a viral detection button appeared at the bottom of the screen.  Double clicking again on the button, the screen read out, _"One viral entity detected.  Location: Lost Angles."_

            Phong's frown deepened.  Had the virus they had been fighting escaped the game, and fled to Lost Angles?  He thought for a moment, then said, "Scan game for viral entities."

            _"Impossible."_

            "Scan game for any entities."

            "_Impossible."_

Well, it seemed outdated technology did have it's uses at some times.  Phong was certain the virus would not have been able to move out from under the game mid-battle.  If his format cannot be detected while under the cloak of the game then that must mean…

            "A second virus," Phong sighed.  It seemed the day had just gotten worse.  He tugged at his beard absently.  Sending out an investigation would be nice, but most of the CPU's were still in the game, and any that weren't were already out aiding and patrolling the city.  Phong opened up a channel immediately to the remaining CPU's.  "There has been a massive surge of nulls coming from Lost Angles.  I take it by now all of you have noticed?"  Phong smiled at the dogged and irritated replies that came from the CPU's.  "My children, the root of these null rampages is located at Lost Angles, where a virus has been detected.  A second virus.  You are the first to know."  A string of curses came from the channel.  "I will alert the rest of the CPU's as soon as they win the game, and the rest of the system as soon as possible.  Please try to help with containing the nulls and keeping the citizens safe.  Thank you."  

He closed out of the vidwindow.  Between games and the two viruses, one of whom has part of the system already under its control, and another who can rally angry swarms of nulls, Mainframe would have a very difficult time defending itself.  They still didn't even know the full extent of the destructiveness of these two viruses.  He headed to the archives.  After bypassing the very strict security, and heading past innumerable files, including Welman's portal format he had kept, he came across what he had been looking for.  The link to the Guardian headquarters in the Supercomputer.

* * *

Turbo almost felt like chuckling out of pity.  Boy, the Mainframer's sure have a full plate.  First, half of their system is blown away, then they have two viruses and stampeding nulls.  Some systems never get a break.  Despite how modest this system may be, it was pretty obvious they needed a Guardian to clean things up.  It took Turbo less than two nano's to figure out the ideal candidate: Bob.  He had already been to Mainframe, and made some friends there.  Plus, despite the success stories he had constantly heard about Bob as one of the top Port Authorities (Catching Mouse single-handedly had made him quite the celebrity around the Guardian elite) Turbo had a feeling he would do well here.

Turbo buzzed his secretary, "Can you get me Bob?"

"You aren't going out to goof around again are you?" his secretary chided.

"Nah, I have a special job for him."

"Okay, I'll tell him to bring a crash helmet with him."

Bob peered around the corner a little while later.  "You wanted to see me, Turbo?"

"Sit down, son."

Bob sat in a chair across from Turbo's desk.  He could see the boxes of paperwork stacked along the wall still waiting for Turbo.  The glamour of being Head Guardian.

"Bob, do you remember Mainframe?" Turbo asked.

"Yeah, and Gigabyte too.  The whole reason I went into Port Authority instead of Viral Investigation or System Repair." Bob answered.

"Well, you'll be glad to hear that Mainframe recovered, and was doing just dandy." Turbo said, crossing his arms meaningfully.

Bob frowned.  " '_Was_ doing dandy' "?  Turbo handed him the report he received on Mainframe, and Bob's eyes read over it.  "Random!  Don't they deserve a break?"

"Sure do, son.  And they need help ASAP.  Phong sent me this report using a link we gave them the last time we were there.  It was lucky I recognized the name Mainframe as soon as it landed on my desk, or I would have never gotten to it in time," he nodded over to the boxes of paperwork.  "Bob, I want you to go down there.  I know you are more than qualified to help them.  They're up to their armpits in trouble, and you just the man to pull 'em out."

"I don't know Turbo…I was the one who…"

"The one who what?  Tried to save Dixon?  Tried to repair Mainframe?  Comforted those in need?  Went above and beyond?  If you're going to have another damn guilt trip again, then think of helping out Mainframe now as an obligation." Turbo spat.

Bob felt himself a little taken aback, then nodded.  "Alright.  I'll go," he smiled.

"Go to the Ports, and I'll give them an okay on it," Turbo smiled, "You know where that is, right?"

"I _work_ there, Turbo"

"Mm?  Oh, yeah, right.  By the way did you get me…?"

Bob smiled.  "The frosted Chip Bits?" he asked and tossed Turbo a bag he had snuck in.

Turbo grinned, "Thanks, Bob.  I _never_ get a chance to eat these anymore."

* * *

Enzo and Dot gave each other a high five.  Who knew the giant snake guarding the next level was allergic to feathers?  The siblings strode past the snake into the next level while Enzo adjusted his feathery, elaborate warrior headpiece.  They had passed seven challenges already (the snake included), three of which already seemed to have been solved by someone else.  However, there apparently was more than one path around here, and she had yet to find the path the CPU's had taken.  It seemed as if this game was designed to split people up.  Still, as more previously solved puzzles met them, it looked like they were about to catch up to CPU's.

Dot knew that Megabyte wasn't very far behind.  The door couldn't have held forever, and after seeing that the challenges did not reset themselves once a new player entered, she knew she was practically clearing the path for Megabyte.  Unless he had somehow got manipulated by the game to take a different route.  She hoped that it was that easy.

The next room somehow seemed to have its roof blow out, though the pyramid had seemed immaculate from outside.  Dot ignored the discrepancy of the dilapidated room and looked at the floor.  It seemed to be a pond covered with crocodiles, all of which had their eyes closed, hissing.  Turning her head back up to the ceiling, Dot realized that this room had been solved too.  Apparently, the crocodiles had no tolerance for the oppressively hot and bright sunlight beating down.  Enzo clapped a hand over his mouth to stifle his yelp, when he stepped in a pool of someone's energy.  It looked like the CPU's had had some trouble escaping the crocodiles in the dark.  She wondered if they had known light was the key, or if they were just lucky and blasted open the ceiling on accident.  In either case, what now?  

Enzo turned to Dot and mouthed silently, _How are we gunna cross?_  Dot gave a grim smile and mouthed, _Quickly,_ before readying herself in a sprinting position.  Enzo caught on and did the same.  Dot flagged Enzo and herself to start with her hand, and raced across the pool on the crocodiles' backs.  The crocodiles snapped and hissed at them, but both made it across.  Dot looked at the new rips along the calves of her pants.  That was close.

* * *

Phong waited as patiently as he could at the main hall of the Principle Office.  Turbo had said he would send help immediately.  It had been microseconds since the game had landed and Phong was starting to worry more and more.  What could possibly be taking so long?  Suddenly a luminous bubble appeared, reflecting the Supercomputer.  And out from it stepped—

"AH!  Young guardian!" Phong gasped, "I am both surprised and pleased to see you!  I was not expecting you to be the one to help us in our time of need."

Bob brushed himself off and replied, "Turbo talked me into it.  I hear you guys are in a lot of trouble right now" his smile faded.

"Yes, my son.  The two viruses we have are still mysterious to us.  We haven't had much of a chance to analyze them."

"Heh, I bet!"

"Yes, I'm sure you have read the report, so I needn't waste time with details." Phong said and wheeled over to a large open vidwindow.  Bob was surprised how fast this old sprite could move.  "The virus we just recently located is here," Phong pointed to a charred island that must have been the Twin City's remains, "This is Lost Angles.  I know you are already familiar with it.  We do not know the extent of this virus' power.  I believe it may have entered the system along with the first virus we became aware of, Megabyte.  He has already succeeded in infecting almost a third of Mainframe since he entered as an attachment to a word processing program introduced by the upgrade."

"I'll go out there and find out what's going on," Bob said determinedly.  

"Please, be careful, my son.  This virus appears to have the strange and dangerous ability to exercise control over nulls, and has already made Lost Angles its strongpoint," Phong warned.

"I will," Bob nodded, while opening up his zipboard.  He hopped on and sped off towards lost angles.

* * *

Dot and Enzo were both walking down a crossway corridor to the final level when they bumped into a group of binome CPU's. 

"Oh, hello there," A Zero spoke up cheerfully, "It's nice to see someone other than virals are traveling around here!"

"You mean the virals have been where you guys have?" Dot asked.

"They bloody have, the scoundrels.  Don't do a lick of work to help out unless their ascii are in jeopardy too."

Dot frowned.  _That means the virals have split up, _Dot thought, _They could be on any number of roots to the center.  They may already be at the end of the game!  _The Zero broke her train of thought.

"Terribly rude of me not to say so before, but my name is Algernon Cholmondley-Worthington III.  You can just call me 'Algy'," explained the Zero.  He pointed his thumb over his shoulder at a One standing behind him.  "This chap here is Ffarquarson, but everyone calls him 'Binky'."  Binky tipped his pilot hat.  Algy pointed to a group of four behind them, "Most of us have gotten split up by the game sprites outside the pyramid, or by the awful things inside the pyramid.  Many are still outside are taking care of the civilians.  These are all the other boys that were fighting with us.  We were selected to help win the game, but I'm afraid we've lost a few along the way,"  Algy explained quickly.  Each of the four other binomes tipped their hats and introduced themselves.

"My name is—," Dot began.

Algy cut her short.  "Already know who _you_ are, _Miss Matrix_, and young Enzo Matrix too, I believe!"  He gestured to Binky and himself, "Quite big fans of your diner we are.  Frightfully fast food you've got!"

"Frightfully!" Binky chimed.  "I say," Binky added, "Does anyone know where we are?  Ever since the mess with the crocodile room and the virals, we've been just about everywhere, and still don't know where we are!"

"Whoa, you were in the croc room?" Enzo gaped, "We saw a lot energy and mess in there!  Lucky for us the crocodiles were still blind and stuff!"

"Yes, lucky those virals are jumpy with guns!" Algy remarked distastefully.

"Just like with the scuffle we were having before the game hit!" Binky added.

"Quite!"

"Quite, indeed!"

Dot cut in, "Everyone, the virus Megabyte is heading toward the end of the game.  He isn't trying to win it, but he does want to be where the Principle Office would be before we win and the game lifts."

"If we win, Miss!"

"Yes, the final level is only a little ways away.  Well, I think.  Megabyte seems to have split his virals into groups to seek it out.  All the Principle Office defenses have been converted to game matter, so Megabyte can simple walk past where the walls would have been.  When the game, lifts, everything will be converted back to normal, but Megabyte will be in the same spot where he was last inside the game.  _Inside_ the Principle Office.  Everyone outside the game doesn't know about what's going on in the game, so he could get access to the Core Control before we can retaliate."

"Right then!  Enough chat!  Alright boys, I want everyone except Binky and myself to seek out the virals, and clean them out of here.  Try and keep them away from the back of the game.  Dot, Enzo, Binky and myself will try to win this last level," Algy commanded.  The binomes bid their farewells and took off.

"Are you sure you want to take us instead?" Dot asked.

"Of course!  You've got a good head on your shoulders.  Now, lets be off, yes?" Algy spoke.  After a long, dark, and twisting hall, they came to an impressive doorway blockading the next room, decorated with blue feathers and gold, and a large headpiece with luminous glaring eyes and red streaming ribbons of fabric.

"Hey!" Enzo cried, "It's the doorway to the last level!  Up ahead!"  All of them raced to the door.  Enzo tugged open the door, which creaked open easily.  "That wasn't very hard!" 

"Look here!" said Binky, "The lock has been broken!"

"Megabreath?" asked Enzo.

"Let's have a look."  Algy concluded, and started to head in.

"Not just yet, please" a cold voice echoed behind them.

All of them whirled and found Megabyte standing behind them, with a troop of virals bristling alongside him.  "I thank you for giving us the smoothest route possible to the end of the game, Ms. Matrix and the CPU taskforce.  You have saved us a great deal of time and effort," Megabyte said smoothly, "However, it is most important that we enter these last few rooms.  I assure you we won't interfere with winning the game…"

"The game!"  Enzo cried in sudden realization, "The lock!  We haven't seen the User yet!  There are tons of pathways and shortcuts all over the game!  He could be inside!"  Everyone's attention turned to the broken lock.  Binky and Algy opened the door wide, and all four of the CPU's that had split up with them earlier lie unconscious on the floor.  The User stood out in the middle of the room, dressed in a dark cloak with a large, vibrant mask made into a snarling, angry face.  Several heavy beaded necklaces suspended from his neck, and a knotted, bent staff was held in his hand.

"Well, I guess we know what happened to our men!" Algy cried.

The User turned to them and waited expectantly.  Megabyte strode confidently past Enzo, Dot, Algy, and Binky and into the room, his virals following in a huddle.  He turned and said, "Well?  Don't just stand there, you have a game to win for me."

"The nerve of that virus!" grumbled Algy as they followed into the room, "If we weren't in such a pinch…"  The room inside was much larger than the limited view of the doorway had first suggested.  Stone covered the massive walls and ceiling.  Each wall was decorated with elaborate paintings and carvings of multiple rituals, ceremonies, and important figures and symbols.  But the single most striking feature of the room was the impossibly huge deity that sat on and equally impossibly huge throne placed at the farthest wall from them.  He was entirely blue, with streaming black hair and feathers decorating him all around, and searing white eyes.

"_YOU HAVE REACHED THE END OF YOUR QUEST.  THE ONE TO FIND THE KEY TO MY TREASURE, WINS,"_ the large being spoke, and gestured to the treasure at this feet, contained in a large iron box by a heavy rusted lock.  The figure suddenly went dim and lifeless, like a toy turned off.  The User immediately began touching and inspecting the tiles and paintings decorating the wall.  The images for one part played out, like a movie, and became still.  Dust and rocks fell from the ceiling, and all of the room's inhabitants noticed the large room had become significantly smaller.  The User moved to a new section and began toying with it too, with the same process as before repeating.  

"It appears you have to try out each one to see if one of these paintings and wall carvings to find the key," Dot realized and covered her face as more dust fell from the increasingly smaller room.

"But there are hundreds, Dot!  The room will be too small for us to move by the time we find it!" Enzo remarked.  

"I doubt this game would run on sheer luck," Megabyte intoned as he examined the walls.  "One of these is bound to hint off that is has the key hidden within it."  Another segment of room was played out, and the gigantic figure's head crack heavily on its throne under the weight of the lowering ceiling.  Each individual went to a wall and inspected and peered at it closely.  Several of the painted or carved scenes were played out, and as the room became smaller and smaller, no key was shown.

Enzo looked at one painted scene with a large muscular cat, like the ones they had met at the beginning of the game, and a young girl.  Neither seemed to have any relevance to the key, so Enzo moved on.  He bumped into one of the still unconscious binomes he had met earlier and placed his hand over the painting to steady himself.  "Oops!" he moaned, "I wasted a chance!"  The scene played out, and the girl took out a necklace she held from under he simple, ethnic dress.  At the end of it dangled a key.  Enzo gaped and touched the tiny key with the tip of his finger.  A golden key dropped from nowhere into his hand.  "Wow!" he gasped, then jumped up and waved it towards Dot, "LOOK!"

Dot whirled and saw Enzo holding the key, grinning.  "Way to go, Enzo!  That's my little brother!  So much for the wall pictures having any clue to the key, though."  He ran up and gave Dot the key.  The User turned to them and raised his staff.  Algy raced over to them and managed to push them out of the way just before the staff came down and an invisible blast turned the spot where they had been into a crater.

"Perhaps you should have been wiser to keep your discovery to yourself, boy" Megabyte sneered coolly from the center of the room, his virals right behind him.  The User stuck his staff down again, and Dot, Enzo , and Algy barely scrambled out of its wrath.

"Bloody witch doctors!  How are we going to get around him?  Not to mention we need Megabyte out of here if we don't want him in the Principle Office, and I'm afraid to say we already have our hands full!" Algy asked.

"I got an idea," Dot said, and she waved the key in front of the User.  He raised his staff again, and Dot dashed in front of Megabyte just as the staff came down, and the invisible blast hurtled towards them.  Dot's momentum helped her duck out of the way just in time, and the blast hit Megabyte head on.  The virals behind him scattered like bowling pins, and Megabyte was sent flying across the room, out the wide open door, and skidding roughly into the hallway.  Sparks could be seen as they saw him came to a grinding, painful halt.

"BINKY!  The door!" Dot yelled to the One, and he ran to the door and attempted to blockade it before Megabyte woke up.  Another angry blast came down in Dot's direction, and she dodged it almost too late.  "ENZO!" she cried and tossed the key to Enzo.  Algy and Dot raced towards the treasure box.  As the staff was about to come down again, Enzo tossed it to Algy.  Furious, the User turned to Algy to start his attack again.  An angry bang on the door from Megabyte threw the User off, and Algy threw the keys to Dot, who was already at the treasure, waiting.  Having regained his composure, the User slammed his staff down in a final attempt to stop Dot, but she had already placed the key in and turned it.  The lock opened with a soft click.  Dot turned from the treasure and saw the User's blast still coming at her.  She covered her face and screamed, expecting her inevitable deletion any nanosecond.  The blast stopped midair, inches from her face, and she suddenly found herself consumed in purple.

***GAME OVER***

***GAME OVER***


	4. Happy Endings...sort of.

* * *

Bob wobbled on his zipboard as he tried to avoid getting eaten by a giant blob of nulls.  Another wave came crashing towards him, and he slid easily to the side to avoid it, and continued on.  He came to a stop at a bridge that seemed unusually twisted and bent.  Bob carefully zipped along it, wondering what was the use of a bridge so warped.  Come to think of it, what was the use of having nulls wreaking havoc on Mainframe?  This virus must be a chaotic.

A large and very warped purple building was stuck on the other end of the island.  Pressing his leading foot downward, Bob spurred his zipboard forward and readied Glitch.  Things were looking bad.  Very bad.  He came to the front of the building, and touched the rubbery walls, wondering what it was made of.  "Come in," a cheery woman's voice rang out, and an opening in the wall suddenly appeared and sucked him in.  Bob bounced and slid on what seemed to be a long purple slide, until the slide ended and he was launched into the air.  He was about to ask Glitch to become a helicopter for him, but was stopped short as he found himself suspended in thin air.  Slowly he felt himself lowered to a platform in the middle of a large, almost empty purple room.  The marble platform seemed to mushroom up from the bottom of the long cylindrical room, and sitting in the middle of the platform on a twisted black throne was the virus.  She grinned at Bob, and he noticed a mirror behind her showing the game cube still in progress.  A small football-like black cat sat glaring at the virus' feet.

"Hello, Guardian.  I'm Hexadecimal.  Haven't seen you for a while.  Back already?" she cackled, and continued to grin secretively, as if she was having a good joke at his expense.  Bob wondered what in the net she was talking about.  Didn't really matter, this virus scored a ten on the crazy-o-meter, and she already knew he was a Guardian.  This meant she was going to be real trouble.  Like hell she was going to surrender quietly.

"Virus, I am Guardian 452, and I have been sent to stop the damage and chaos you have been causing.  You are under violation number 1429489, and will be—"

Hexadecimal roared with laughter, "I love it when you try to use the Big-Boy voice!  It's _hilarious_!"

Bob felt his face get hot.  Oh well, it was worth a try.  He gathered himself together and responded, "Whatever it is you're doing to the nulls, you need to stop.  Now."

"Oh, and ruin all my fun?" Hexadecimal crooned, "I don't think I'll be doing that, Guardian."

"If you don't do so willingly, I will have no choice left but to force you to," Bob answered sternly.

Hexadecimal's grin deepened into malevolence, and her eyes turned red.  "I'd like to see you try," she taunted nastily.

Bob raised Glitch, and saw Hexadecimal ready a ball of energy in her hand.  Oh, boy.  An energy throwing chaotic virus, just what he needed.  They posed truculently in front of each other, while Scuzzy moved behind Hex's throne.  Both were waiting for the other to strike when a voice boomed out.

***GAME OVER***

Bob held his breath and waited for the second half. 

***GAME OVER***

Bob breathed a sigh of relief and watched the game cube lift up harmlessly inside of Hex's looking glass.  Hexadecimal's face snapped into one of shock.  The game was gone?  Just like that?  No damage?  

Outside the nulls began to calm in the absence of the game.  With no game in Mainframe, the nulls no longer had any of their fear of the game for Hexadecimal to manipulate.  Hexadecimal growled in rage, "NO!  They're not listening to me any more!"  She found while she could still control a large number of nulls, she could not force them all of the nulls in Mainframe to hysteria and chaos.  It was all _his_ fault, somehow.  Hexadecimal screamed in fury, her face contorted with malice, and turned to where the Guardian was.

Bob was long gone.

Bob could hear Hexadecimal's rage all the way from the warped bridge.  Phong had e-mailed him through Glitch to come to the Principle Office right after the game had lifted.  He hoped whatever was going on over there less trouble than Hex's House of Horrors.  Bob hoped she wasn't going to take that anger out on anyone else.  Looking down, Bob saw the nulls calmly returning to Lost Angles.  It seemed Hexadecimal had lost her control over the nulls, and they were back to normal, now that the game was gone.  Well, at least for now.  Bob wondered how Hex had managed to manipulate and twist the null's fear of games into something so destructive.  Oh well, just one of those things you'll never know.

* * *

The game cube lifted from underneath him, and Megabyte felt himself falling down into the 'moat' of the Principle Office.  He was _so close_ to having been inside the Principle Office, he could have reached out and touched it.  All because of Ms. Matrix.  That, however, was not important at the moment.  What was important, however, was the hard, hard ground rushing up to greet him.

"HEY, BOSS!"

"COMING TO GET YOU!"

For once, Megabyte was happy to see Hack and Slash's idiotic, bumbling faces.  Their hands locked around his arms, and Hack and Slash opened their jets and thrusted upwards.  When they had safely reached the ground on the perimeter wall surrounding the Principle Office, Hack and Slash set Megabyte gently down.  

"Oh, boy!  Boss, when we got separated from you, we thought we lost you for good!"

"Yeah, we were looking around for you forever!"

"It was very scary being lost."

"VERY scary!"

"We set off a lot of booby traps."

"Hey, the boss looks really mad."

"Oooh, he gets really scary when he gets mad…"

"Just like that time when we blew up the Artillery room…"

Megabyte ignored their banter.  He was furious.  He had been **_so close_** to attaining his goal, he could have been inside the Principle Office when the game lifted!  If only Ms. Matrix hadn't made him into the User's target.  He had never anticipated Ms. Matrix to pull such a bold and dangerous stunt.  Megabyte unsheathed his claws and vented some of his anger by slashing the ground.  CPU's and ABC's continued their dogfight midair.  Continuing the battle was useless, Megabyte realized.  It was time to retreat, for now.

"I won't forget this, Ms. Matrix," he hissed at the Principle Office.  "Get me a transport back to the Tor," he snapped at Hack and Slash.

"The 'Arm Express'?"

"We can _carry_ you!"

"MY LIMO, YOU FOOLS!" Megabyte growled.  Once the limo had finally been brought around, Megabyte went in and contacted one of his commanders on the channel.  "Withdrawl immediately.  Head back to the Tor.  This has been far enough already for today."  His commander nodded and ended transmission.  Megabyte felt the scratches and grooves cut into his back when he had been sent grinding into the ground.  It would take forever to the cuts repaired and polished out.  Another wave of anger swelled, and he struggled to keep in control.  This city would be under his control sooner or later, and he was going to find it especially satisfying watching Ms. Matrix pay for defying him…

Dot felt like passing out on the Principle Office floor.  Enzo tackled her and gave her a hug and babbled ecstatically.  Binky and Algy were already calmly heading for the Principle Office door, while the other binomes finally woke up and were rounding up the virals who were scattered nearby.

"Well, back to work we go!"  Algy cried jovially, "Got to fend off those viral scum!"

"Do come and have some coco with us later, yes?"  Binky called over his shoulder, as they headed out.

Phong arrived in the room just a moment later with a look of surprise on his face.  "My children!  What are you doing here?"

"Game," Dot responded wearily, "Long story, we'll tell you later."

"DOT WON!" Enzo bubbled, "And she kept ol' Megabyte from using the game cube as a way to get around the Principle Office defenses!"  Enzo pointed to the wall of the Priciple Office.  Phong blinked and smiled at Dot.

"I am very glad you are both safe.  I am sorry that I put you in such grave danger in the first place," Phong said sincerely.

"No way, Phong!  It's not your fault!  You were trying to help us until the battle went away!  It's all that Megabreath's fault!  And—BOB?!" Enzo exclaimed.  Bob was standing in the doorway, exchanging shocked looks between Enzo and Dot.  The Guardian couldn't help noticing the change of clothes in Dot.  Wow, she looked nice…

"Oh, yes," Phong added, "This is Bob.  The guardian who helped us during the Twin City incident.  I believe you remember each other.  He came to help us with the second virus, and the null crisis.  After the game left, the nulls have quieted down, and I brought the Guardian here to help aid in fending off Megabyte.  However, it seems Megabyte has decided to retreat, just recently," Phong bantered on.

Confused looks spread around the room.  After what seemed to be a microsecond of everyone explaining everything to each other, everyone finally understood what had happened to each other while the game had landed, both inside and outside the cube.

"That was some pretty random moves, Dot," Bob laughed, scratching his head.  "Having you inside the game is definitely a plus."

"Thank you.  Now that Hexadecimal and Megabyte have been taken care of for now, what are you going to do?" Dot asked.

Bob thought for a moment, then said, "Well, working at the Port Authority was okay and all, but this seems like a nice system, and it really looks like you need someone to help keep the peace from now on.  So if it's alright with everyone, I'm going to go back to the Supercomputer to report to my authorities, then—"

"YOU'LL STAY WITH US?  HERE IN MAINFRAME?"  Enzo exclaimed, and tackled Bob promptly to the floor.

Bob nodded.  "Wow, Enzo, you've gotten really big," he groaned.  "Yeah, I'd be glad to stay here a while.  That is, if it's alright with Mainframe?" Bob asked, looking up at Phong.

"Mainframe would be very honored and gratified to have you," Phong said warmly.  Bob looked at Dot and the two exchanged smiles.  "Now then," Phong said, "let's get you on the portal room, so you can be on your way as soon as possible.  That is, if we can get young Enzo here off of you."  Enzo immediately hopped off and helped Bob up.

"No need," Bob replied, and brushed himself off.  He held up Glitch and commanded, "Glitch! Portal to the Supercomputer!"  An iridescent sphere of the Supercomputer appeared in front of them.  Enzo looked on with all the awe and envy a child could hold.  Bob waved goodbye to each of them, and smiled again at Dot.  "See you soon!" he called and stepped in the portal.  The portal disappeared as soon as he had entered.

"Bye!" Enzo waved.  He turned to Dot and said, "Dot!  That was totally alphanumeric!  Can we go in the games and fight viruses _all_ the time?" he asked excitedly.

**_"NO!"_**

* * *

Bob looked across the desk at the Eight-ball Apartment's keeper.  Dot had said that this was a nice neighborhood to live in, so he took her advice and checked out this place.  Everything here seemed big and clean enough so far.  It looked like this was going to be the place to stay while living in Mainframe.

"Well, we have a have big one the third floor up for you, with the large garage you specifically asked for," said the binome across the desk, "But you'll be living with a room mate.  Is that a problem for you?"

"Nope," Bob answered.  He doubted that any of the people living here could be any more annoying and suffocating than the one's at the Guardian Academy.  Bob felt sorry for Enzo wanting to go there on that aspect.

"Rent is collected every second.  You pay on time.  No exceptions," the binome droned.  "Room 7.  Here you go," the binome said as he handed him the key.  Bob could have sworn that there was a look of pity in that binome's eyes.  He shrugged it off and headed to his room.

The room inside was fairly empty.  Either the person living here didn't spend a lot of time in here, or they kept very few possessions.  Bob peeked into the garage and was pleased to find it was very spacey.  That was just perfect for the new car he was saving up for.  Some guy wanted to get rid of his classic car, and he seemed pretty happy to sell it to Bob as soon as he had all the money.  A classic!  Go figure.

Bob exited the garage and felt something bump into his knees.  He looked down and saw a small, yellow TV set with arms, legs and a mouth.  It grinned up at him a chatted, "Hey there, partner!  My name's Mike the TV, and guess what?  I'm your roommate!  Isn't that great?  I was _thrilled_ to find out that Mainframe's own Guardian was going to be bunking with ME!"

Bob blinked.

"And, OH, this is your lucky day, because I have some _fabulous _products to sell you!" Mike lowered his voice to a dramatic stage-whisper, "And, since you are my roommate, I'm going to let you in on some special deals.  And special they are!  Why, I'd be willing to sell you this _revolutionary_ Bucket-O-Nothing!"  Mike raised his voice again in the excitement of TV commercial products, "And ONLY for the itsy-bitsy fee of **$9999.99!**"

Bob soon came to the horrible realization that the viruses and games inside Mainframe may just end up being the _least_ of his problems.

* * *

As my first, and last, authors note: Thank you for taking the brain-burning effort to read my story!  I hope you enjoyed it!

See you soon…


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